


dude no stop this isn't your normal horror story wait-

by blue000jay



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: :), Alternate Universe - Amusement Park, Mild Gore, Minor Character Death, max is older and david is younger, max!dad au, reverse!dadvid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-10
Packaged: 2020-10-04 13:53:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 29,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20472104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue000jay/pseuds/blue000jay
Summary: "How about a reverse max!dad au where teen or adult Max meets young Davey (abandoned or lost) at a theme park, tries grudgingly to find his parents, the search goes too long and Max ends up locked in the closed park with Davey and a shadowy, murderous figure overnight?"i go overboard





	1. here we go again

Aw, fuck. 

Max’s summer job wasn’t supposed to be like this, okay? He was supposed to wear a dumb hat and make ice cream cones and rootbeer floats. It was supposed to be easy, air conditioned, and something he could handle. He didn’t want to deal with kids, that’s why he stayed in the kitchen. Neil had pointed out that he probably would have to deal with them at some point, but if it was minimal he could deal with it. Turn on the charm, smile and hand over an ice cream. Easy peasy. Right? Not tonight, apparently. He’d just been closing up the small shack they made cones in, taking out the garbage before getting to leave. The park was closed by now, it was pretty dark, and all the families were gone. He was the last one here, since Nikki had left earlier to go close up the front gates and then head home. Other than a few janitorial and security staff, Max was pretty sure he was the only one left in the place. It wasn’t a huge amusement park, but it wasn’t tiny either. Somewhere in the middle, he supposed. Regardless, it wasn’t supposed to be this. 

“Aw, fuck,” he grumbles, staring at the child who definitely isn’t supposed to be back in the garbage alley. He drops the bag of discarded ice cream cones and soda cups into the dumpster with a clunking noise, startling the kid enough into looking his way. 

“Hi!” The kid chirps at him- _ yes _, chirps- scrambling to his feet and brushing off his pants as he does. He’s small, and despite the faded light in the alley, Max can tell he’s got a head of red hair. The light above them flickers, and Max glances up, then back at the kid.

“You know this place is closed now, right?” He asks, tipping his head toward the kid, then frowning and reaching up to rip the stupid hat he was forced to wear off his head. 

“Oh, well,” The kid shuffled his feet, the smile on his face drooping a bit, then regaining it’s vigor. “It’s okay! My parents said it was a game. I had to hide back here all night, and then in the morning they’d come get me and we’d get ice cream!” 

Aw, fuck. 

* * *

By the time he manages to get the kid inside the ice cream place and safe, it’s even later than it was before. It had taken some extensive convincing to tell the kid that it was better to come with Max than to keep waiting for his parents, and after some choice words, the kid had come with him.

Max learned in about .2 seconds the kid’s name was David Adelard, he was seven years old, his favorite tree was a birch tree, and his favorite icecream flavor was vanilla. After a second of being stared at, Max obediently got him a vanilla cup. If only to keep him from crying.

“Do you know where you live?” Max asks for the second time, and David finally pauses in his ice cream eating endeavors to think. 

“Yeah! I live on a hill!” He says, voice annoyingly high-pitched and cheery. It was fucking late at night, why wasn’t this kid exhausted yet?

“A hill,” Max repeats, and David nods. “Do you know… what hill?”

“Nope!” 

“...helpful.”

“I always try to be helpful! My mom says that helpful people always come out on top!” David grins at Max, then slowly, his grin melts away a little. “I miss my mom.” 

“Well, kid, I’m sure she’s gonna be glad to see you.” Max is a good liar- he’s had to be good at it. His own home life was pretty shitty, so it was a skill he mastered at a pretty young age. And he can tell that David’s own home life probably isn’t so great, either. It can’t be, if someone is willing to just dump their kid in some shitty amusement park. Max turns his phone over in his hands, wondering if he should call Campbell, or the police. He knows his employer won’t do shit- he never does, so after a moment, he ops for the police. 

His phone opens up just fine, but the moment he tries to call the emergency number, his bars go out. And not just that- the whole thing goes on the fritz. The camera flashes a couple times, music blasts for a second then turns off, and the whole thing startles Max so much he drops his phone. David startles too, dropping his spoon into his ice cream.

“What was that?” He asks, standing up on his chair to peer down at Max’s phone, sitting on the table and the screen black. Max frowns, picking it up by the corner and then cussing loudly. Stupid thing was shit anyways, he was long overdue for a new one. And it figures tonight of all nights would be the one it gave out on.

“My phone is old, and a piece of shit. Means I’ll have to use the emergency one back here.” Max gets up, pushing his chair back from the sticky table and heading behind the counter to where they keep the emergency telephone. Knowing Campbell, however, he’s not surprised when he finds the cord to the landline cut. 

“You shouldn’t use words like that, you know!” David pipes up, after his latest round of swearing violently. Max plops back down in his seat, then swipes up David’s empty ice cream cup and tosses it in the trash.

“I’m a big kid, I can do what I want,” he explains, watching David eye him. After a second, he leans forward onto the table.

“Can I say a bad word too?” He asks, and Max raises an eyebrow.

“I dunno. Have you earned it?” David looks confused, sitting back in his chair with a little thump.

“What do I have to do to earn it??” He asks, sounding just as confused as he looks. Max grins, shrugging a little bit and putting his hands behind his head, messing with his hair a little.

“You have to do something bad,” he explains. “Something real bad.” 

“....but I don’t want to do something bad!!” The confliction on David’s face makes Max want to laugh, and so he does. Just a little bit, but he stops when he sees that David isn’t amused. Instead, he moves on, trying to distract. 

“Ah, see, that sucks. Guess you can’t say a bad word.” There’s a moment of pause, then a plastic spoon hits Max square on the forehead.

“DANG!” 

* * *

“You’re really not funny.” Max wipes at the remaining ice cream on his forehead, scowling in David’s general direction. The little monkey had climbed up onto the counters, and was watching as Max threw the spoon away and then washed his forehead and the scoop he’d used to get him ice cream.

“You said I had to do a bad thing,” David points out, and Max sighs. He had, true, but the little shit still had surprised him.

“Well, you got to. Surprise, now you can’t shit on me for saying bad words, okay?” 

“Okay!” It went quiet between them as Max dried off the ice cream scoop, setting it aside to dry for the night. He really didn’t try too hard to follow codes- it’s not like Campbell would care.

His boss really was a shithead. Cameron Campbell, owner of Campbell Amusement Park and certified asshole. He wasn’t ever around and paychecks were always late, and always minimal. Max knew the guy was running some shady stuff out of the park- he wasn’t dumb, or oblivious. He just didn’t care enough to report the guy. As long as it wasn’t drugs, and as long as he got his paycheck every two weeks or so, he didn’t care. It also meant he could do a half-assed job and not worry about being fired over it, which was great.

“Max?” His name sounded weird coming from such a little kid. He wasn’t used to them at all. Max didn’t like little kids, and David was a prime example of why.

“Yeah?” He asks, turning to look at him and leaning on the counter.

“What are we going to do now?” David asks, looking a little nervous.

“Well, we’re…” Max trails off, glancing out the front windows. “Um.” He doesn’t really know. He’d tried his phone again a few minutes ago and it was still out of commission, and so was the emergency landline. He couldn’t reach anyone, which meant he needed to head up to the security office and either leave and bring David with him to the police office, or call from there. Either way, they needed to go up to the front of the park. “Well, let’s go up to the main gates, okay? You’ll get to see all the cool behind the scenes stuff, and shit. I dunno. Sound good?”

David seems to consider it, even bringing a hand up to his chin in a thinking pose. His face is serious. Max raises a brow as he watches, and after a second, he sticks his finger in the air and grins. “Sounds good!!” With a little whoop, David pushes himself off the counter and toward the floor, giving Max a mini heart attack. He didn’t want to have to deal with a hurt, crying child, but David seems to be fine and after a moment, Max follows him to the door. He turns off the lights, checks his pockets for his phone, and then grabs David’s hand.

“Don’t go running off,” he instructs him, and David laughs.

“I won’t!” 

* * *

By the time they’d made it to the gate, it seriously was late. Max knew his parent’s wouldn’t care, though, he could make up some excuse about someone vomiting or whatever. They probably wouldn’t even notice. It was fine. The problem was, he got to the gate and it was locked. That wasn’t super unnatural for it- of course Nikki locked it earlier, he just had to go get the key to unlock it and then bring it back tomorrow. 

The key wasn’t on the hook.

“Max?” David grips his hand tightly, dancing around on his feet. He looks tired, and Max honestly can’t blame the little shit. It’s been a long day, and now it’s going to get longer. Max sighs, rubbing his forehead with one hand and then leaning down. He picks up David and sits him on the desk, then goes over to the radio charger port where he knows one will be. Bingo. 

“One second,” he mutters, picking up the walkie talkie. David gasps.

“A walkie talkie! Who are we talkie-ing to?? Do we get to walkie to them??” He asks, eyes going wide at the sight of the gadget. Max shakes his head.

“No, David, I have to call the security guard so he’ll bring us the keys, then we can leave and bring you to the police station. So shut up for a second.” 

“Sorry!” David swings his legs as Max collapses into the desk chair, and they sit in silence for a second as the radio crackles. And crackles. Max presses the call button.

“Hey, Nathan. Naaathan. Fucker, I need the keys to get out,” he says into the walkie talkie, and David frowns at him. Oh, shit, right, swearing. “Uuuh. Please.” He takes his finger off the button and waits, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. The radio crackles, and crackles. Max sighs.

“Nathan,” he tries again, “pick the fuck up. I found a kid, he uh, he stayed after hours and I need to deal with this. Or you do, since, you know, you’re the security officer.” Still no response, even after Max tries a third time, and a fourth.

“Maybe his battery ran out!” David says, still swinging his legs. Max tips his head back and lets out the sigh of the long-suffering, before standing up and clipping the walkie-talkie to his belt. 

“Well, if that’s the case, then he’s a dumbass. Come on, we’re going to go look for him.” David grins and slides off the desk, hitting the ground with a thump. His shoes light up- of course they do. Max resists the urge to roll his eyes, then motions for him to follow. They head out of the security office, only to find an eerily dark park. 

“Shit.” Max whips around, nearly hitting David as he does. “Sorry, okay, fuck. Lights are out, someone turned them off. Means I know where Nathan is, the fucker, but now we need flashlights.” 

“Ooo! Flashlights! Can I get one too?” David’s apparently given up on pointing out Max’s verbal transgressions, instead happy to just follow beside him and peer into the box Max pulls down off a shelf. He snags a flashlight for himself, then a smaller one for David. After a second’s thought, he flicks both of them on to test them. They both work fine, so he hands the smaller one to the littler boy. 

“Don’t drop it, or break it, okay? If you do, it comes out of my goddamn paycheck,” he explains, able to hear Campbell’s voice in his head already.

“Yes, sir!” David grins, holding his hand up to his forehead in a salute, then holding his flashlight up. “I won’t break it!” 

“You say that now,” Max grumbles, and they head out of the office for the second time and start down the dark paths, “but give it five minutes.” 

  



	2. shit fuck shit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> death warning in this chapter. to skip, start at "The staticy crackle of a walkie talkie, and it wasn’t the one on his hip." and go to about "It makes him gag again, and he turns to take a moment. Then, he hears it. "  
"

Max knows his way around this park. He’d been coming to it for years and years, and now that he works here, it’s easier to get around. He can use all the side alleys and secret passages (who builds those in a_ theme park _, seriously?) with no problem, and get to one side of the park from the other in less than five minutes, usually. At night, however, it’s a different story. Whether it be from the dark, or the annoying kid hanging off his sleeve, Max can’t seem to get his bearings. By the time they pass the same sign for the third time, he’s about ready to lose his shit.

“Max?” David asks, pressing closer to Max’s leg while they’re motionless. “Where are we going?”

“Well,” Max replies, annoyed out of his mind while he tries to orient himself. “We’re supposed to be going to the service room. But since Campbell wanted to force people to get lost in an endless loop of money traps and food stands, I’m having a hard time getting there right now!” 

“Campbell?? You mean, Mr. Cameron Campbell? The owner?” David seems less scared than before, looking up at Max with stars in his eyes. 

“Yeah? Who else would I be talking about?” Max asks, looking away from David for a moment to read the signs once more. He misses the excited look on David’s face, and the way his pupils expand like a cat entering a garden full of catnip. 

“Oh-em-gee!! He’s my hero! He’s so clever, and cool, and he always says his punchline right at the right moment during a ride-” David starts blabbering, and keeps blabbering, until Max finally pipes up. 

“Yeah, well, he’s also sort a shithead.” Silence, and he can see the moment David’s face falls. Max backtracks, waving his free hand in the air. “But, uh, I work here. So I have to say that, you know? Perpetually angry, angsty teen employee, thinking I deserve better.” David’s staring him down, and Max gets antsy, pointing down one of the paths with his flashlight. “Hey, look, that’s the right way, let’s walk that way-” then takes off in a huff, leaving David to trail behind. It doesn’t take long for David to catch up, clinging to the back of Max’s shirt. He’s starting to get annoyed by the gesture, but as he turns around to reprimand him or tell him to knock it off, or something, he pauses. David’s mid-yawn, and Max’s sudden stop makes him lose a little momentum and bumble into his legs. He just… looks so small and tired for a second. Max stares at him until David pokes him with a questioning “...Max?” 

“It’s nothing,” he says, defensively, then crouches a little to meet his eye. “...are you tired?” David nods, rubbing at his eye with his hand. 

Max used to do the same thing, he recalls. Sometimes he still does, when he’s extra tired. His mom used to tell him, no, Max, don’t do that. It’ll leave smudges under your eyes, dark circles that would never go away. Go to sleep, Max, don’t come to us when you have a nightmare, just go back to sleep. Mom and Dad are busy.

In one smooth move, Max reaches down and picks David up. David’s small, but not light, and it takes a bit of maneuvering to get him on his back. Max holds the flashlight with the fingers of one hand, carefully supporting David with the other, piggyback style.

“If you fall asleep and fall off, I’m leaving you here,” he says, and David giggles. He still sounds tired, and Max’s suspicions are confirmed when David leans his head against Max’s back. 

“Thank you,” David says, voice small and quiet. Max just grunts and keeps walking down the shittily maintained paths, careful to avoid stepping on any potholes. 

By the time they reach the service shed, Max kind of figures that David’s asleep. Regardless, he has to put him down, so with a little shake, he wakes him up.

“Rise and shine, you little bastard,” he says, and David sleepily slips off his back to land in the dirt, shoes lighting up at the impact. Max stretches, cracking his back.

“Ew,” David wrinkles his nose, and Max wrinkles his back.

“Like you can say anything, you snot eater,” he points out, and David gasps, high-pitched and seemingly no longer sleepy. 

“I don’t eat snot! Ewww!” He clasps his little hands over his nose and mouth, staring at him. Max grins, shoving a hand in his pocket and then casually slouching down to address him, and poke his free hand into his chest.

“You totally do. All little kids eat snot.” David jumps back and Max shrugs, standing up straight again to head toward the service shed. He can hear David following him.

“I’m not super duper little! And I sure don’t eat snot. And even if I did, which I do not, it’s probably healthy for you!” Max turns and looks at David, who sticks his tongue out at Max.

“That’s so gross,” he comments, before turning to open the service shed door. He hardly puts his hand on it when it just creaks open, unlocked and swinging freely on its hinges. Nathan must be inside, then. Good.

“Nathan?” Max calls out, stepping into the dark shed and flashing his light around. There’s no response, but the breaker box is further in, so Max turns.

“You stay out here,” he tells David, “there’s a bunch of dangerous shit in here.” Who knows what Campbell keeps around this place. He watches the way David glances around the dark park, and then back at Max. His fingers fumble with his flashlight, then he shakes his head.

“Can I please come in with you?” He asks, “it’s… dark out here.” Max can tell the little guy is nervous. After a second, he relents.

“Fine, sure. But don’t touch anything.” 

“Okay!” 

* * *

“Nathan?” The breaker box is open, and Max has no idea how to fucking work it. There are tons of little switches, and no labels for any of them, of fucking course. He waits for a second, flashing his light around. There’s no reply from anyone, so he ventures a little further into the service shed. “Nathan, are you here?” Still no reply. David’s clinging onto his leg like a little spider, and Max can’t exactly blame him. It’s dark and kind of scary down here, even with their flashlights. The mountains of boxes make shadows where there shouldn’t be any, and even his insides get a little jittery from time to time. Not to mention, there’s this mechanical static noise from some broken machine in here, he’s sure. After a cursory search with his light, he sighs and gives up. Obviously whoever was here last (coughNathancough) couldn’t figure out the breakers and probably left to go call for more help. Max goes back over to the breaker box and sighs, looking at it before giving something a cursory flick.

The power floods back on in a whir of machinery. There’s a rush of noise as well, as various attractions start going through their corny start-up phases. Lights and music and machinery. 

“You did it!” David laughs, letting go of Max to jump up in the air with a happy laugh. “Yay!” Max ignores him for the moment, turning around to look out the door behind them and see if the pathway lights are on. They are, but it’s not the only thing he sees. 

“...David,” he says, doing his best to keep his voice level and calm. “Hey, uh, David, I need you to uh, go back outside for a second, okay?”

“What, why?” David sounds curious, but Max stops him before he can turn around all the way. He kneels down beside him, meeting his gaze and forcing the concern out of his voice and eyes.

“I need you to check if the lights are on for all the rides- don’t go too far, just look and then yell back into me or something, okay? Then stay outside,” he explains, before getting up from where he’d been kneeling and leading David to the door. 

“...oookay, Max! Can do!” David grins, stepping back outside with a little flash of light from his shoes.

Max turns, and immediately dashes toward the arm and hand he’d seen lying limply between boxes. Now, he knew what the noise was. The staticy crackle of a walkie talkie, and it wasn’t the one on his hip.

“Nathan-” He turns the corner, skidding to a halt on worn sneakers almost a size too small. His flashlight tumbles to the ground and oh hey, he broke his flashlight before David broke his. Great. The battery bounces one way while the body of the device rolls, coming to a stop in a puddle of deep, dark red. Max’s hand comes up to cover his mouth, the other searching for a purchase on the boxes or wall to keep him upright. It’s gruesome. 

There’s sticky red blood covering everything, it looks like, everything in this corner of the shed. Max didn’t know this much blood came from a person. The walkie talkie is still clipped to the man’s belt, buzzing with life.

Max turns to the side and retches. Nothing comes up- he hasn’t eaten all day, so the most he gets is stomach acid and spit. He clears his throat and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand when he’s done, before turning back to the body. It’s Nathan, for sure, and whoever killed him did it cleanly- in a sense. His throat is open and gaping, and Max can’t help but compare it to a second mouth. His face is calm, maybe a bit surprised, eyes open. But he can’t focus on that now. He’s got to get the keys, and then get David and him out of here and _ away _ from whoever killed Nathan. And get the police out here. He creeps forward, avoiding the puddle of blood and swallowing down more gagging. It smells like rust and iron and death, but he ignores it. It’s just like in video games, or movies. It’s a prop. Not real. It can’t be real.

He kneels beside Nathan’s torso- no, the body’s torso, he can’t think of it as Nathan anymore. That would just fuck with his head further. He kneels beside it, and carefully reaches out. He checks the pockets first, then the belt, and finds nothing. Just the walkie talkie, which he unclips from the belt and stores on his own. After that, he stands. 

Nathan doesn’t have the keys. Nathan’s dead, throat slit, and Max’s shoe is currently standing in a bit of his blood. 

It makes him gag again, and he turns to take a moment. Then, he hears it. 

Whimpering. Soft little cries, like someone’s crying. David. Shit. 

Max bolts out of the stacks of boxes and mentally hits himself, over and over. He left David outside when there was clearly someone deranged running around the park, and David was _ seven _ and he was an idiot. He makes it out of the building and sees David, swearing under his breath and running over. It only takes a second for him to swoop David up, checking him over for anything that might be hurt.

“Are you okay? David? What the fuck?” He asks, holding him in his arms. David’s crying, tears falling down his cheeks, shiny in the false light of the lamp poles. 

“M-M-Max-” He blubbers, before burying his head in Max’s shoulder. He takes a second, carefully patting the back of David’s head, before pressing him for information.

“I’m right here, idiot, what’s the fucking matter?” He asks. David tugs his head away from him and wails-

“I fell down!” ...what? 

“...you what?” Max looks at him, nose wrinkled slightly. David nods, sniffling. 

“I fell down, I heard a noise and got scared, and there was a bump and I tripped and my kneeee huuuhrts-” He devolves into a blubbering, crying mess once more and Max has to compose himself. 

There’s a dead body of his coworker in the building behind him, and the perpetrator is definitely still around. He’s holding a (very loud) crying child, and he’s pretty sure he’s the only other person here that’s mildly responsible. The Quartermaster might be here, but he’s useless even when it’s not life and death. Max pats David’s head absently again, before looking down at his knee. Oh, holy fuck, he did scrape it up. There’s even a little bit of flesh hanging off it, jesus christ. For a moment his mind flashes back to the body and- no, he can’t focus on that now. And he can’t let David see it.

“Okay. Hey, David, buddy. Dude. Stop crying, okay? I know you got scared,” well, he can only assume David got scared but he can imagine that hurts quite a bit too. “So calm down, okay? You can ride on my back again to the front of the park, but I need you to be really, really quiet.” He has no idea if David will listen to him, but after a second, his sniffling and crying slows down, then stops.

“...my knee really hurts,” he whines, and Max pats his back again before leaning down to set him on his feet.

“I know. But you gotta be tough, and be quiet, okay? We’ll fix it all right up, but we have to get back to the security office to get the first aid kit.” And call the police, but he’s not telling David that. He’s seven for fuck’s sake. Max carefully gets David up on his back, piggyback style once again, and starts heading back to the security office. David is quiet, as promised, with only the occasional little sniffle to be heard. Max has his ears peeled, listening to everything around them as they walk and purposefully keeping his footsteps light.

“Max?” David asks after a little while of them walking.

“Yeah?” Max replies, but keeps his voice low. 

“Where’s your flashlight?” David sniffles again, but he sounds less scared and wet than before.

“I… left it. We don’t need them, now that the lights are on.” Max explains, not describing how exactly, he left it. 

“Oh… yeah. Okay.” David takes his explanation at face value and goes quiet again. Max sees no one as they make their way back, and he thinks maybe, whoever killed Nathan doesn’t know they’re here. That would be great- but the lights coming back on. That doesn’t just happen, and whoever it was would know that someone turned them on.

And maybe saw the body.

Shit.

Max shoves the thought into the back of his head and gets David into the security office. It’s a small complex of two rooms- one outer waiting room with a few chairs and a desk and computer. The computer hasn’t worked for a few years, but there’s also a back room. The back keeps most of their supplies- some first aid, some technical, some security. There’s pepper spray back there he’s pretty sure, and the door locks. So that’s the most logical place to go. Max gets them into the back room and sweeps it, checking under the desk and behind the racks of haphazardly labelled boxes. David watches him with curious, tearful eyes, but doesn’t say anything. Not even when Max locks the door, and then shoves a plastic chair underneath it. He just sits where Max put him, not looking at his knee. 

“Max?” He doesn’t answer when David asks, too busy half-climbing a rack to pull down the box labelled “First Aide”. Bitches can’t even spell first aid right, he thinks bitterly, before going over to kneel in front of David’s knee. He pulls out the hydrogen peroxide and some bandages, and after a moment of thought, some gauze and cotton rolls. David’s watching him with wide eyes. 

“Max?” He’s voice is shaky, but Max just shakes his head at him.

“This is going to sting,” he informs David, holding up the peroxide. David nods. 

“Okay.” He shoots David a small smile, pushing it past his worried exterior before carefully taking David’s knee in hand. He uses hydrogen peroxide to clean around the knee and get rid of the semi-congealed blood, then carefully picks out bits and pieces of dirt that he noticed in the wound. David whimpers a little, and a few more tears leak out of his eyes, but other than that, he’s quiet. Max focuses on the monotony of cleaning and dressing a wound to distract his mind from the other problem at hand, trusting the locked door to keep them safe for now. They need to get out of this stupid fucking park, but he knows they can’t do that if David is whiny and in pain. 

He finishes putting on antibacterial ointment, then carefully puts on a big bandage. On top of that, he puts a piece of gauze and then wraps it up in clean white cotton. There, it’s super secured. 

“Feel better?” He asks, sitting back on his heels and watches David swing his knee back and forth, then nods.

“Yeah,” he says, blinking at Max before smiling. “Yeah!” 

“Good. Stay here for now, okay? I need to get the phone.” He turns away from David, who simply nods and stays where Max told him too. Max hides how his fingers have started to shake by going over to the desk and shuffling through a mess of papers on it, then shoving them away into a filing cabinet before starting the search for the phone.

“Max?” David’s voice is small and scared. “Why did you lock the door?”

“Safety.” The word slips out of him like water sliding off a duck, and he can’t take it back.

“Safety from what?” David’s apparently smarter than he’s let on, and Max sighs, opening the last drawer in the desk.

Telephone.  
“Nothing,” Max lies right out of his ass, picking the phone up out of the last drawer and checking the cord. It’s still functional, if not out of date. A rotary phone. He sighs, plopping it on the desk and then hunting for the outlet. He finds it, ignoring David peppering questions behind him.

“Are you sure? You seemed kind of scared, and you barricaded the door. Why’d you do that? People in movies do that, does it really work?” 

“I don’t know, David!” Max snaps, turning to him. “Listen! You need to be quiet, okay? I need to call the police-”

“You’re calling the police?? Why!!” David sounds worried and leans forward in his chair, eyebrows scrunching together like two little caterpillars. 

“Because someone left you here, and I can’t find the keys to get out and- and- they can help!” Max stumbles over his words, not wanting to mention the _ dead fucking body _ he had found earlier to the kid. He watches as David stares at him, then glances at the door, then sits back in his chair. His fingers pick at the bandage on his knee, and Max almost feels bad. He rubs his forehead with one hand, then lets it fall to his knee. “So please, just, be quiet. Okay?”

“...okay,” he says, and Max immediately feels bad. He glances at the phone and then promises himself he’ll apologize once he gets it up and running. He grabs the cord, unravelling it from around the old phone and then turning and kneels to plug it in.

The power goes back out.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)


	3. goddammit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is like double the other chapters HAHA i'm back babey!!! the writing machine is back in order!

“Shit.” Max stands up, letting the phone cord tumble down from his hands. “Shit, shit, shit!” 

“Max?” David sounds scared, and Max can’t see him so he can only assume he’s still in the chair.

“Shit!” Max wants to throw a tantrum, and it takes every molecule in his body not to throw the phone across the room. It was their only saving grace, goddammit. Now he’s got to get them out of here and down the path to the parking lot, without running into whoever killed Nathan. And he’s got to keep David from knowing, or freaking out. He takes a deep breath, then another, subduing the ringing in his ears until it’s background once again.

“-ax?” He can hear David again and shit, he’s crying. Sobbing, even. Apparently, David’s a crybaby. Good to know. “Max, please, I’m scared.” 

“I’m here,” he says, swallowing and turning. Okay, it was pitch black, but he knew the layout of the room fairly well. “David. Shut up, I’m here. Are you still in the chair?”

“Y-yes.” His answer was shaky, but Max could tell that he wasn’t sobbing anymore. Good. He felt bad that he’d had to abandon him emotionally for a second, but. He had to do what he had to. Okay. He slowly turned, putting a hand out and then- right. 

“Hey, David?” He asks, turning to where he thinks David is sitting. “Can you reach the ground with your shoes? And hit them, so the lights come on?” David gasps softly, then Max hears some rustling. There are a couple flashes of light, and suddenly Max can see for a couple of seconds. Then it goes dark again.

“Aw, shit, thanks. Do it a couple times in a row, okay?” He asks, and starts to slowly maneuver his way to the shelves of boxes. There, with the little flashes of light David gives him, he finds the flashlight box. Thank god there are some in there- only two left, but enough. He grabs one, then grabs another in hindsight and shoves it in his back pocket. He flicks the one on, thankful that it lights up. He flashes it over at David, who gives him a wet smile. He’d clearly been crying, and it makes Max feel a little worse. He finds David’s flashlight on the desk and goes over to hand it to him, then, hesitantly ruffles his head of red hair. 

“Hey,” he says, trying to soften the gruffness of his voice. “You’re being really brave, and that was really helpful.” 

“Really?” David smiles wider at him, and Max presses his lips together in a grim little smile. 

“Yeah, you little bastard.” 

David grins at him, finally, and moves to get up from his chair. Max lets him, and then leans against the wall, watching David stomp around the room with his light-up shoes. It relieves him to see that the knee isn’t really bothering him, the bandage white in the dim light of their flashlights. He tries to make a plan- he’s gotta get out of this park and make sure David does too. 

For all of Max’s knowledge on Campbell Amusement Park, he only knows of two ways out. One was the back entrance, used mainly by Quartermaster and the janitorial staff and occasionally other staff members when the main lot was full. The other was the main gate- a tall wooden gate with the main sign over it. Most of the park was fenced in by one hell of a tall fence- twelve feet high at some parts. Campbell was paranoid about people sneaking him and him losing money in the process, although Max knew some of it was probably down at this point. Quartermaster never did shit to fix things around here, but it led into a vast expanse of forest, which wasn’t helpful either. Max wasn’t good at sorting things out, and David was proving a distraction. He makes a list in his head as he watches him prance around the room.

Idea one. They pry the main gate open, or lockpick it. Max doesn’t know how to pick locks, however. And if he did, he didn’t have anything to pick it with. A cursory search of the desk in the room showed zero paperclips. Zero of anything, really. The key was MIA as well.

Idea two. Max climbs over the fence and goes to get help, while leaving David in here to be safe. But- well. He can’t. He can’t leave him. If something were to happen, or if someone were to hurt him… Max couldn’t forgive himself if a kid got hurt or worse, killed because of something he’d chosen to do. As much of a hardass he thought he was, he knew he wouldn’t be able to survive  _ that _ mental torture.

Idea three. The back entrance. That was a long walk through the park, and then a long walk through the woods. Ideally, their best option here, if it weren’t for the fact that Nathan’s killer was still in the park and knew that someone else was there as well. And the power was out, making it dark and hard to see. 

Idea four. Try to climb the fence with David. 

“Hey, David?” Max pipes up, and David abruptly stops humming some tune he’d started while Max was thinking. He looks over at Max, and suddenly he’s hit with a sense of nostalgia in that dark little room. David looks so young, filtered by shadow, and Max is sure he himself looks older than he is.

“Yeah?” David asks, tipping his head.

“Do you think you could climb the fence, outside?” Max asks, and David puts a hand to his chin as if he’s thinking. 

“Maybe!” David says, glancing at the door and the chair holding it closed. “It’s pretty high….” 

“Could you try?” Max asks, also glancing at the door. “We’d have to do it really fast, and really quietly. I’ll help you.” 

David looks away from the door and back to Max, staring him down. After a second of just staring, he nods. “I can try.” 

“Okay.” Max nods, running a hand through his hair and swearing when it gets tangled. After tugging it out, he stands and goes over to the door. “I’m gonna make some rules right now, and you have to follow them, okay? They’re gonna be weird rules, but you need to follow them at all costs.”

David tilts his head, making his way over to Max and standing there with him. “Why?”

“Because I’m telling you to.” Max says sharply. 

“Are we safe?” David pushes him, and Max considers telling him the truth, but. He can’t. 

“...yeah, dude. We’re safe.”

“...you’re lying.” David calls him out on it immediately, of course he does. Max sighs, pressing the heel of his palm against his forehead and then crouching down beside him. He rests his elbows on his knees and cups his chin in his hands, giving a curt nod. 

“You know what? Yeah, I am. We’re not safe right now, and if you want to be safe, you have to listen to me and do what I say, okay?” 

“But you’re-”

“But I’m what? I’m the one who’s in charge right now, okay? Don’t fucking start it with me.” Max snaps at him, lifting his head up from his hands and pointing his finger at him. “Don’t.” 

“...sorry.” David shrinks back, Max’s heart immediately races. 

He inhales, then exhales. Calm down. “It’s okay. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t… I shouldn’t fucking snap at you. You ready for the rules?”

“It’s okay. Yeah.” David is subdued and quiet, and Max feels awful all the sudden. His chest drops, but he can’t give in anymore. He has to put down the rules. 

“...okay.” Max knows it’s not okay. He decides just then and there, never to snap at David again. “Okay. Rule one, don’t leave my side unless I tell you to. Rule two, don’t talk unless it’s super duper important.” Max blinks, thinking. “Rule three, I can make new rules if need be. Okay?”

“Okay.” David nods, looking up at him, flashlight in hand. “..can I ask a question?” 

“Sure.” Max nods, letting David take some control. 

“What are we running away from?” The question takes Max off guard, and he shakes his head lightly. He doesn’t know how to honestly answer that, so he answers it with a question. 

“What makes you think we’re running away from anything?” He hopes that David gives up, but no. Of course not. It’s not in his cards today, apparently. 

“I’m not stupid, Max.” David’s arms cross in front of his chest, the flashlight beam bouncing around the room. “I’m little to you, but I’m not dumb. You’re scared of something. We’re going to climb over a fence! Why can’t we just go out the gate?”

“Because I can’t find the fucking key, David,” he says, and David winces at his language but doesn’t interrupt. “And the one person who- who could have it- well, he’s not fucking here right now. So we’re climbing over the fence, and it could get us in a lot of trouble. So we have to be quiet and stealthy. Like video games, do you play video games?”

“Oh! Nope, not really!” David grins at the mention of video games. “All I like to play is Pokemon!” 

“Aw, shit, I like Pokemon too. See, we’ll get out of here and not get in trouble, then we’ll go play Pokemon, okay?” Max watches David consider this and the rest of his answers. He knows David isn’t stupid despite his age, but he also knows that he’s seven. He’s little, and Max can’t put the burden of a dead man on his shoulders. The burden of life and death. So he’ll lie the best he can and get them somewhere safe. 

“Okay,” he finally says, and Max’s shoulders slump in relief. David nods at him, then reaches out and gently takes Max’s shirt in his hands. He grips it tightly. 

“Okay.” Max nods at him, before standing up straight and quietly, moving the chair away from the door. “Here’s the plan. I’m going to go out first and then when I say so, you follow me. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“Good. After we’re outside, we’re going to turn our flashlights off, okay? And then we’re going to climb the fence. You first, then me. Okay?” 

David nods, then grips Max’s shirt tighter. He doesn’t answer, but he does let go when Max gently pushes him away. The chair comes off the door handle, and Max stares at it for a minute. Then reaches out and carefully, turns the lock. 

He opens the door. 

The first room is dim, lit by moonlight streaming in through the window. Good, it’s fairly bright out, then. Max and David will be able to see okay without their flashlights to attract attention. With that thought in mind, he flicks his light off. David does the same. Slowly, he makes his way through the first room and looks out the windows, keeping low to the windowsill but knows that David’s watching him. 

No one is outside. 

Carefully, Max motions for David to come with him. He waits for when he does, then cautiously, they make their way outside. The gate isn’t far from the entrance of the security office, but climbable fence is a little bit away. Max has to lead David through some brush and off the beaten path, down the edge of the fence. After a few feet, they come to what Max thinks is a suitable section. He gives it a good shake, using the moonlight to guide him as they go. It rattles a little, and Max winces. David doesn’t say a word, but his grip on Max’s shirt tightens by a fraction. 

“Ready?” Max whispers, glancing down at the little shape hovering around his legs. David nods, and Max takes a deep breath. He glances up the fence, then leans down and picks up David. “Okay. Get your feet in the gaps, and use your hands, okay? You can do this.” He holds David up as far as his arms can bear with his weight, and David rustles for a moment. Then, he nods. 

“You can let go.” He’s whispering too, and Max hesitantly lets go of him. He stays up on the fence, and slowly starts to climb. Max points out where to put his feet, helping guide him until David’s just out of reach. It’s working, it’s working, and Max is just about to follow when something snaps behind them.

It sounds like a branch breaking, and then there’s the rustle of leaves. Max whips around and he can hear David freeze up on the fence. 

“Keep going,” he whispers, and he hears David make a little scared noise. “Davey, keep going, no matter what.” He pulls the extra flashlight out of his back pocket and holds it up defensively, creeping forward. He can hear the fence rustling as David continues climbing and beyond that, more crackling of branches.

“Come out, come out wherever you are,” he hisses into the dark, listening carefully for a response. He wasn’t expecting a response, and he didn’t get one. The crackling in the branches stops, though. It’s eerily silent.

Too silent.

“David?” Max whirls around, not hearing the sound of the fence moving. David’s still up there, about halfway, but he’s frozen in place, head tipped to the side and staring down at him. 

“Max,” he whispers, but it’s loud enough that he can hear him. “Max. There’s- there’s a person- behind you-” Max hardly hears him before he’s whipping around, flashlight help up in his hand. He hardly gets to do anything before there are hands on his chest, pushing him backwards and into the fence.

“Shit!” It bounces back with him and he can hear David shrieking above him, and the fence clanging. There’s a shadow still- a person, and Max prays for it to be the Quartermaster. He flicks on his flashlight and aims it toward the bushes. This is the one time in his life he’s ever asked for it to be Quartermaster- and of course it isn’t. 

It isn’t anyone.

No one’s standing there, and Max is alone, except for David above him who’s still shrieking and yelling and- fuck-

He can tell in an instant David’s falling, his grip lost from the fence from when Max was shoved into it. Max swears, stumbling forward and dropping his extra flashlight in the process, but he can’t care about that now.

“MAX!” David’s voice is shrill and annoying, but it makes Max scared instead of irritated. He turns, just in time for David to drop. His feet move without him telling them to, and then he’s catching him. Sort of. He acts more like a pillow, David falling on top of him. Oof. For a seven year old, he’s probably light, but to Max he’s heavy.

“Shit,” he groans, before wrapping his arms around the kid on top of him. “Shit!” 

“Ow-” David barely gets a noise out before Max is moving, hardly giving a thought to his own possible injuries. He just sits up, tugging David with him and stumbles to his feet. 

“Max.” David’s voice is terrified. “It’s still here.” His head is over Max’s shoulder and looking behind him, so Max just bolts. Fuck the fence and fuck climbing it, they need to get to the back entrance and fast. His feet are moving again and David’s clinging onto him like a scared monkey, and he’s pretty sure neither of them have their flashlights anymore. As he runs, Max hardly glances up at the park signs. He’s just focused on losing whoever was with them, whoever had shoved him. David doesn’t make a sound, even as they twist and turn through different pathways and down different alleys. Max needs him to, though.

“Is it-” He’s out of breath, but he forces the question past his lips, “is it still there?” 

“No.” David clings harder onto his back, the word quietly falling past his lips. Max takes this as a moment of respite and slows down, silences his footsteps, then ducks into game.

The path they’d run into was one of the ones lined with game stalls. Stupid prizes hung from the rafters and decorated the back walls, tall counters giving them something to hide behind. That’s exactly what Max does, setting David down none too gently on the floor and then collapsing beside him. He tries to catch his breath and listen for footsteps, for anything. And it doesn’t take long for him to hear it.

His hand goes over David’s mouth before he can stop himself, and then he glances over. David’s eyes are wide and scared but he doesn’t try to stop Max from silencing him, just nods while he raises a finger to his mouth. Max stops breathing. 

Footsteps sound in the dirt, the soft shuffling and scraping as they pass by. Max stares upwards, praying to god whoever it is doesn’t check behind the counters. Above them, stuffed ducks swing back and forth, back and forth. The steps pause, turn, muffled and then grow closer. They pause again.

Max can’t breathe. His fingers grip David’s face harder and with a glance, he can see the kid has his eyes shut and face screwed up. The footsteps start up again and he glances upwards once more, listening as the soft stride moves away from them. It grows fainter, and fainter, then it’s finally gone. 

Max forces himself to breathe silently and slowly, but he doesn’t dare to peek up over the counter until he’s counted to two hundred in his head and still heard nothing. Finally, he makes himself look, hand coming off of David’s face in order to help him peer over the counter.

Nothing. The game alley is clear and empty, awash in the pale moonlight. 

Max slumps back down on the ground against the counter and runs a hand through his hair, forcing back tears. Holy shit. Holy  _ shit _ . What the fuck was going on? A tug on his sleeve pushes him out of his thoughts and into real life again, glancing over at David. 

“Max.” David isn’t crying, but his eyes are shining. He tugs on Max’s sleeve again. “What’s going  _ on _ .” It’s not a question, but Max gives him an answer anyways.

“There’s a bad man in here,” he says, struggling to find the words for what’s happening that will make it kid-friendly. “And we have to get out without him finding us.” 

“It wasn’t a man,” he says, and Max looks over at him, surprised. 

“What?”

“I saw it. On the fence. And then as we ran. It wasn’t a man.” David glances away from him, and upwards. Towards the counter and the black sky above them. Max wrinkles his nose, nudging him gently with his elbow.

“What the hell was it, then?” He asks, and David looks back down at him. He seems confused, shaking his head slightly. 

“I don’t….know.” There’s a moment of silence, then Max slumps back against the counter.

“Wow, you’re helpful as shit, David.” Oops, too harsh. Fuck. 

“I’m sorry!” David’s eyes are immediately shining again, and Max shakes his head, sitting back up. He holds his hands out, trying to placate him with a gesture. 

“No, no, no, it’s fine. It’s okay. You, uh, you were really brave. Yeah. Aaand you’ve been following the rules. Awesome job,” he promises, then reaches out and ruffles David’s hair. “Awesome job.” 

“I did let go of the fence, though, and fall... ” David points out, shoulders slumping a little. Max takes his hand out of his hair and instead, rests it on David’s shoulder. He wasn’t good with physical contact, usually, but this seemed the right thing to do. It gets David’s attention after all, making him look up at Max and pay attention to his words. 

“That? Was not your fault. Not your fault at all,” he says, forcing sincerity into his voice. 

David doesn’t seem convinced. “...okay.”

“Okay. Yeah, okay.” He doesn’t know what to say, how to show him he means it. It hadn’t been his fault! There’s a moment of silence, then Max turns to look over the counter again. Only this time, there’s a throbbing in his chest, and he grits his teeth, hissing out a “fuck!” and gently touching his chest.

“Max??” David looks worried, crawling over to him. “Are you okay?” 

“I’m fucking peachy,” he forces out between clenched teeth, gently poking at the sore area. “You’re just heavy as shit.” He hadn’t felt it earlier, with his adrenaline pumping, but now he could feel the spots where he’d bruise later from David’s fall. There was also a particularly tender spot halfway down his chest on the left side, and he could only pray he hadn’t broken a rib. He takes a few deep breaths, wincing as he does, but it doesn’t hurt all that bad. He files it away as unimportant, then looks over to David. “How about you? Are you okay? Did you hit your head, or anything?” 

David shakes said head. “No,” he says, reaching up to pat his little fluff of hair. “I feel fine.” 

“Good,” Max grunts, “Seeing as you used me as your landing pillow.”

“Sorrrrreeeeyy.” 

“It’s fine.” They both lapse into a moment of silence, Max listening for any noise other than their own labored breathing.

“Max, what’re we gonna do now?”

“Well….” Max didn’t really have any particular plan B, he was just planning on going with the flow. And the way the flow was right now, he’d have to go with the back entrance. “Well, now we’re gonna go across the park, okay? There’s another entrance, usually for just employees, but we can make it out of there and then follow the fence to the main gate and road.” 

“Back entrance?” David glances back over their heads, and Max does the same. The stuffed ducks above them have stopped swinging for the most part, and the pathway is silent. Nobody seems to be there anymore. It makes Max a little more confident. 

“Yep,” he says, and he’s about to continue when all of a sudden, there’s pressure on his arm and side. David’s leaning against him, head against his arm and eyes staring into the empty space in front of them. 

“...Max, I’m scared,” he whispers, and he has to struggle for a minute to answer him in a way that could be taken as seriously. His hand reaches out to pat David’s head, then stops, then keeps going and ruffles his hair. 

“Hey, that’s good. That’s really good.” David gives Max a look, raising his eyebrows and getting the closest to sarcastic Max thinks he’s seen tonight. “No, really. It keeps you sharp and alert! If you weren’t scared, I’d be fuckin’ worried.”

“Really?” David doesn’t sound too confident in that, but Max isn’t lying. He’d rather the kid be scared and docile than stupid and defiant, like he was. 

“Really, really. Now, I’m gonna check the path again, then we’re gonna go, okay?” He explains, and David leans harder against him before pulling away. 

“....okay. I’m ready.”

“Cool.” Max peers over the counter. The path is empty, lit by moonlight and eerily silent. His footsteps are awfully loud as he crawls over the top of the counter. They echo in the silence, and Max turns, holding a hand out to help David over.

“C’mon, Davey,” he whispers, almost wincing at how loud it sounds. David clambers his way over the counter and just then Max notices he’s clutching a little stuffed platypus in one hand. You know what? Fuck Campbell, David deserves something to hold onto right now. This can’t constitute as stealing, right? Nah. With David holding one hand and the other gripping his last darkened flashlight, they set out on a brisk, silent walk toward the back of the park. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me, not knowing what monster i have created: help


	4. motherfucker

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry in advance for this chapter's length- i was busy all day and then when i tried to write i just couldn't find the words plus i have z e r o idea to where this is going!!

There’s a difference between their footsteps.

Max is louder. He’s heavier and the aching in his chest makes his steps off-kilter. The dirt billows up from beneath his ratty, old sneakers Sneakers that have surely seen better days, and ones that will see worse. David, the smaller one, has quieter feet. He walks on his tiptoes half the time and the other half on flat feet, alternating between the two. The dirt under his feet doesn’t puff up as much as it does below Max, and the sounds are softer. Duller, and the scuffling of dirt is lessened. His shoes light up on occasion, making the gravel around them dance with light. It’s so easy to track, so easy to follow that light and Max’s noise. 

Occasionally there will be a soft murmur of words from one of them, or a cough, or a wheeze from Max. Noises that to them, are inconsequential. They’re small in the cacophony of other sounds to their ears.

To the thing following them, it’s a bright, easy trail.

* * *

Max has never seen the park this empty before. He’d been here when it was closed, of course, or to open or close. But he’s always had Nikki or Neil of the Quartermaster here with him. It’s never been just him. Well, David’s here too, but Max is responsible for him. It’s absolutely not the same. 

As they silently walk through the paths, Max’s mind gets lost. David’s grip on his hand doesn’t do much to ground him. He ends up back in the service shed, eyes on Nathan’s lifeless body.

He’s seen movies, and read books, and watched every war documentary there was. He knew what dead bodies looked like, and he knew what blood did, and he knew it didn’t affect him. He had never been enthralled with fiction before. It was just stories, after all, and stories couldn’t hurt you. You couldn’t literally die of fear or anything like that- they were stories. Made up, fictional, fake. Nothing in them was real except human terror. True crime was a little different, but Max purposefully shoved those thoughts away. They would make it out of this, they wouldn’t end up like… his coworker. Davey would be fine. Unbidden, the image of David bleeding from a gaping slash in his throat comes into his mind. It makes him sick to his stomach to even consider, so Max is sure to file that image deep, deep down in the depths of his psyche and promises himself never to think of it again. But it pops back up within a minute and he can’t get rid of it again. Then it’s not just David. It’s himself, it’s Nikki, it’s the Quartermaster. It’s Neil or other Neil- still Space Kid to him. They’re all dead, lying on the floor at his feet with their throats open and wounded. Their blood pooling, mixing, shining together on the floor in the moonlight.

His hand hurts.

“Davey?” Max is pulled from his thoughts by the pain in his hand, looking over and down. At first, nothing seems to be wrong, and he quickly glances around. They’re still alone. “David. What’s wrong?” 

For a minute or two, David doesn’t answer. Then he reaches up with his platypus and uses it to wipe at his face and clean it off a bit from tears, Max realizes. “Nothing,” he says, and he’s a stinky little liar. “‘M okay.” 

“Liar,” Max points out, and David just squeezes his hand harder. He’s got nails, the little bastard, and they’re digging into Max’s palm and fingers. 

“You’re a liar too, so it’s okay,” he points out, and Max sighs. He has lied for sure in the past few hours, so he really can’t argue with him. But he doesn’t want to refute it either, because that would mean having to explain everything to David when he eventually asks. Max thinks for a little bit before giving David’s small hand a squeeze.

“New rule,” he says, looking down at him as they walk. “No lying to each other from now on. Good?” He can see how David thinks about it, before nodding quickly.

“Okay.” He agrees, before going quiet again. At least he stops crying, and the platypus finds a place by his side again and not at his face. They walk for another five minutes or so, before David speaks up again. “...Max? If we’re not lying anymore… I’m scared. I miss my mom.” Max glances down at him, and gives his hand another squeeze. He feels so small next to him, and the statement makes it worse. He tries to be reassuring. 

“Hey, I… I miss people too.” He doesn’t say who, but he does. Max wishes Nikki was here, or Neil, or someone smarter than him. At least those two would be able to fight back. All Max can do right now is run. 

“Do you miss your mom?” David catches on to his vagueness, apparently. 

“Eh. We were never close,” he says, then shrugs. It’s true, they never were. He’d managed until 17 though, and it was only a couple more months until he was finally fucking free. David looks down, however, brows furrowing in the dark. 

“Oh,” he says, and Max sighs. How do you explain shit like this to a kid? He thinks about it for a minute, then decides to just go with something simple. 

“It’s okay. Lots of people aren’t close to their moms. I don’t mind it.” He shrugs again and David absorbs that. He’s gnawing on his lip, and then he looks up at Max and he’s smiling. 

“Mom does everything for me,” he says, swinging their hands. Max resigns himself to hearing about David’s mom. 

“Does she?”

“Yeah! She helps me with my shoes, and helps me when I scrape my knee or elbow, and she’s helping me learn how to ride my bike! And she gives me dinner and works really, really hard all day long so we can stay in our apartment!” Oh. That’s...interesting. Max glances down and meets his eyes. He seems so sincere and happy about his mom. 

“She sounds... really neat, Davey.” He says, and David grins wider. 

“She is! She always tells me funny stories, but not as much since dad left.” 

Max isn’t touching that with a twenty foot pole. “Funny stories?” 

“Mhm!! She tells me about Peter Rabbit and the ticking clock, or Bigfoot, or Scooby Doo!” Wow, those are some interesting stories. A wide variety anyways. Peter Rabbit? Wasn’t that some 1800s shit? Whatever it is, he focuses on the one that he knows the most about. 

“Scooby Doo?” He asks, raising his brows. 

“Yeah!!! I love Scooby Doo, I got all the figures from McDonalds and when we had the TV I watched it all the time!” Oh, jeez. Max has never been good with keeping his mouth shut. 

“When you had the TV?” Oops. “Uh, I mean. Yeah, Scooby Doo is good.” He never liked that shit as a kid. Max had always been practical and realistic. If he did watch movies, it was always scary stuff or classics like  _ Star Wars _ , or something. 

“Scooby Doo is awesome!! I like it the best but my best friend Gwen says it’s dumb. I don’t think it’s dumb!! She’s so mean sometimes but she’s my CBFL- camp buddies for life!! We went to camp together this summer and now we write each other letters-” Max listens as David goes on and on about his camp and his friends, but his mind occasionally drifts away. David finally stops talking when he realizes Max isn’t answering, and goes silent again. Max thinks this is for the best, probably, weren’t they running from something? Shit, yeah, the body and Nathan- fuck, they’d been being entirely too loud.

“David,” he says once he’s figured that out, “hey, we need to keep quiet, okay-” 

Just as he says this, David bolts forward. 

“David!” Max stumbles after him, breaking into a run as he does. They can’t be separated, he can’t lose him- but David doesn’t go far. He stops just at the edge of some bushes, pointing up and looking back to smile at Max.

“Fence!” He says, and Max sighs. Fence. Great. But- okay, no, this is good. David bounces on his feet and Max catches up to him, grabbing his hand again.

“Jesus fucking christ,” he says, “don’t fucking run away from me, David. It’s fucking dangerous, okay? Don’t run.” David stares at him and then nods, then points with his free hand.

“But… fence. We can follow it!” He exclaims, and Max’s mind whirls for a second, trying to figure out what he means. 

“What?” 

“We can follow it to the exit!” David explains, tugging on his hand to get them to start walking again. Max follows, letting David drag him down along the fence. “So we don’t get lost in the park!” 

“The park’s not that big,” Max explains, but even as he’s saying it he knows it’s bullshit. They’d been walking for a while and it all had been passing in a blur, but Max somehow realizes now they’d been walking in circles. That… doesn’t make sense, he thinks. He knows this park, he’s been coming here for  _ years _ , why does thinking about it make his head so confused? While he’s been busy being dazed, he’s slowed them down and David eventually stops, tugging on his arm and pulling him out of his thoughts. 

“Max?” He asks. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” he says immediately, snapping his eyes down to meet David’s gaze. He’s gotta keep David calm, dammit. Patch yourself back up, idiot. “Just.. thinking. You’re right. Following the fence is easier right now.” But why? Why was his mind so scrambled when he tried to think about the park’s layout? He starts walking again with David by his side and follows the fence through the park. It will definitely take longer than just making their way through the park in normal circumstances, but something’s not normal here. So he goes with it and even lets David lead for a little, being tugged along by his little hand.

“David?” He asks after a little bit, “hey, wait.” He feels David stop and watches him turn around, smiling. 

“Yeah, Max?” He’s still just smiling at him and Max wonders how he can be so chipper during all of this. Max is finding it hard to keep up, his naturally pessimistic mood peeking through the dark clouds. Dark clouds that are clouding his mind and making it… hard to think. He shakes his head and focuses again, blinking at David. “Max?”

“I’m fine- nevermind. Let’s keep going,” he says, but he doesn’t feel fine. Something feels off and heavy in his head, but if focuses he can push it away and keep walking. It’s like he wants to sleep and let his body drop, but he can’t do that. David’s relying on him. Why is he so tired? He forces himself to look up and around, trying to pay attention to their surroundings. The park is silent around them and they’re following the fence the best they can. They’ve come out of the part of the park with the games and stupid gift shops and are finally at the rides- there’s a rollercoaster toward the back, rickety old wood. A carousel and a drop tower are already behind them, having been passed a few minutes ago. Max can see the roller coaster in the distance, the outline of the tracks rising fairly high into the midnight sky. It’s aptly named the Old Bucket. Max wouldn’t ride that thing-  _ ever _ . Before that is a haunted house and a couple basic kid rides- a balloon race, teacups, and a log ride that Max is fairly certain has never been cleaned. He can name all the rides in his head, but when he tries to spot them and figure out where they are, he can’t seem to picture the route in his head.

Weird. 

He tries to ignore it though, and uses Old Bucket as a fixed point. He knows there’s an employee-only cabin just beyond it, and the back entrance is just after that. So, with the ride in sight, they’re close. Very close. He picks up the pace a little, matching his stride to David’s quick one and they keep walking. 

“I wish I could go on one of the rides,” David pipes up, and Max shakes his head.

“No power. Also, dangerous man. Shhh.” He tries to keep his own voice down, and David’s as well. He’d said that David had been following the rules earlier, but he was thinking about taking that back. After he shushes him, however, David goes quiet again. They go back to just walking, and walking, and walking.

It takes more time than Max thinks it should to get to the Old Bucket. By the time they do, David’s lagging once more. He’s not pulling Max along, Max is pulling him instead. He stops at the foot of the coaster, near the entrance to the line, and stops. He lets go of David’s hand and turns, pushing away the clouds in his head once more to face him.

“Hey,” he says, keeping his voice low. “David. Listen, we’re almost done, okay? We’re almost done.” 

David rubs his eyes with his fists, platypus tucked under his arm. “Promise?” He asks, and Max nods. Carefully crosses the fingers of one hand behind his back. 

“Promise,” he says, then takes David’s hand. “You just gotta stay awake for a little while more. Then we can go home. The exit’s right over there.” They both glance over toward the employee shed and then back at each other. 

“Okay,” David says, squeezing Max’s hand. “Can I… ride on your back?”

“Oh.” Max breathes in deep, feeling the twinge in his chest, then shrugs it off. He’ll be fine. “Yeah, sure. Hop on the Max train, I guess.” He turns, letting David clamber onto his back. It hurts a little, but he’s fine once he adjusts. And David is such a little monkey, clinging onto his back with ease and staying there. His arms aren’t choking Max, either. For a kid, he’s not… awful. Max has met some awful kids but David isn’t on his top three list- yet. He’s still holding out hope that he’ll be awful and Max won’t feel so guilty about scarring him for life. But it’s hard to think of him as awful when he buries his face in Max’s hair and has the platypus clenched in one hand, hanging just off of Max’s shoulder. He takes a minute to adjust to his extra weight, then starts off toward the back entrance. 

Max is almost worried it won’t be there. The clouds in his head, plus the time it takes just to walk the short distance- he’s scared the fence will just be endless and the exit gone. They’ll be trapped.

But that’s a stupid, irrational thought. The back exit is still there and as they approach it, it’s open. Max nearly cries in relief, which is a lie, but he’s comforted by the fact it’s open. They have an escape, and they’re going to be okay. 

“It’s open!” David’s voice is right by his ear when he pipes up, Max nudging the gate open with his foot. 

“Yep.” He’s grinning, smiling wider than he has in a long time. “Now we just have to follow the fence and the road back to the parking lot and we’ll be all set.” David laughs, bright and happy in his ear as they step out of the gate and out of the stupid park for good. Max swears he’s quitting on the spot, in Campbell’s face next time he has to come back for a shift. Fuck this place and fuck that guy. 

They start off down the service road and toward the end of this stupid journey.

Behind them, the gate creaks a little, and the thing following them slips into the woods. 

  
  



	5. time to blow a gasket

It’s darker out here. The trees hide the moonlight and push Max to walk faster than he had been. He doesn’t want to use his flashlight, but it’s hard to see. The path beneath his feet is solid and clear, though, so even if he’s having trouble seeing he can at least trust that he’s going the right way. David is still clinging onto his back and after a little while Max figures he’s fallen asleep. That’s probably for the best, considering what they just went through.

As he walks, he almost misses David’s blabbering. At least it helped keep him awake. Now, he’s drowsy again. It’s the same feeling as in the park, his thoughts are cloudy and spacey, occasionally slipping out of his grasp entirely. It takes enormous effort just to stay upright. Holding David is hard too, but at least he’s able to cling on and stay by himself. Max just has to keep a grip on his legs and he’s… fine. He’s fine. 

He’s not thinking about Nathan or whatever killed him, or what lies at the end of this stupid night. He’s thinking way past that. He’ll quit this job and then leave, ditching his parents and everyone else to get out of this place. He can’t wait to escape. For a moment, he’s back home. In the shitty living room of his shitty house and shitty parents. He knows where they keep all his stuff- passport, from when they went to go visit his grandparents in India, birth certificate, high school diploma’s in there too. He can’t wait to just pack it all up one night and leave. The plan is pretty much set, Nikki and Neil ready to help him out when he finally decides that night is the night. 

The woods and thoughts of his friends jolt back a couple memories. They’d met at a summer camp a gazillion years ago- jeez, how old were they? Seven? Eight? Eight, he thinks. Summer camp in the woods where they’d hiked and played and caused trouble. For something that Max had been reluctant to do, it had been fun. He’d liked it, once they had showed up. The amazing trio. They were best friends, even if Max couldn’t admit it. They’d gone to that camp for four years in a row and the last year, unwilling to let go, they’d snuck their phones on the last day and connected. 

Only to find out they lived- at a maximum- forty minutes away from each other.

So began a reign of terror. Max considers it the prime of his life, especially once Nikki got her license and they were able to drive around with each other (totally legally). Long hours spent with each other doing nothing or everything, and two whole houses for Max to escape to when he needed it. And the summers. They’d done a lot of stupid shit every summer. Max smiles a little. It’s been a couple days since they had a proper hangout outside of work, so maybe they should do that soon. He misses them, right now. Neil would do something smart with his one-year-early high school diploma (fuck you Neil) and Nikki would lead the way with oblivious confidence and fight off whatever Max asked her to. Like that one time at camp with the bear fighting ring they’d uncovered. Hoo, boy, that had been a week. But a fun week, and one where Max felt powerful.

Now, he just feels small. 

His foot catches on a branch and he stumbles a bit, swearing under his breath and hoping the jostling didn’t wake David. After a second of silence, he assumes it didn’t. Letting out a breath, Max glances around and tries to get his bearings. Where the hell had that branch come from, they usually kept this road clear- but. Wait. Where was the road? Max spins in a quiet circle, hearing the crunch of leaves under his feet and not the pad of dirt. He can’t see shit anymore, but he’s definitely not on the road. Fuck. Shit. Okay, he can use the flashlight now. He’s got a legitimate reason, and they’re probably far enough away from the park that it can’t be spotted.

He maneuvers David, tugging the flashlight out of his pocket where he’d shoved it, then flicks it on. The little circle of forest it lights up is empty except for trees and shrubs, so Max slowly spins in a circle, keeping his eye out for the road.

He doesn’t see anything. Shoving down panic, Max tries to recall which way he’d been facing earlier as he walked. It had been… this way, he thinks. He’s fairly certain. So now just do a 180 and walk back the way they came. This is going to work, he thinks, shining the flashlight ahead of them and trying to spot the fence or road through the trees. He doesn’t see anything, but their sudden stops and starts do wake David.

“Whas goin’ on?” David pipes up once Max starts walking again, and he feels David wiggle. 

“Nothing. Just getting my bearings,” Max lies, and David hugs his arms tighter around Max’s neck. Oops, he broke a rule. David doesn’t seem to notice, however.

“Okie dokie,” he mumbles, and Max can feel his warm breath just under his ear as he breathes. Max flicks the flashlight on and off and on again in his hands, then smiles. 

“Me too, kid,” he says under his breath, and keeps walking. The woods seem to get darker as he walks, and occasionally Max glances up toward the treetops to see if he can see the moon. He catches a glimpse of stars once or twice, then not much else. Taking a breath, he plods on. 

David apparently, did not fall back asleep. After about five minutes of walking, his voice penetrates the silence and dark and makes Max jump a little bit. 

“Are we lost?” He asks, and Max swallows. He considers lying again. “And remember rule 4.” David continues, and Max sighs. He tips his head back and David appears in his peripheral vision, blurry and small. Welp, he’s called out, can’t lie. His voice is even and calm, though.

“A little,” he admits, and it scares him. They’re totally a little lost, and might be getting more lost, and Max is scared. He can’t fucking help it, okay? It’s some sort of innate primal fear, especially when looking around his surroundings and only seeing dark shapes and trees. He’s not even sure how he lost the path- he did get pretty invested in his thoughts, but he would’ve noticed when they went off trail. Right? Max frowns and keeps walking, David just hugging closer. Eventually, his chest acts up, and Max has to stop.

“David,” he says, shrugging his shoulders a bit. “Hey. Hop off, yeah? You’re getting heavy, you little shit.” He can feel as David clambers down, squatting to make it less of a drop for him to hop off. He makes it fine and immediately attaches himself to Max’s side, glancing around warily. 

“That’s a birch tree,” he says while Max stretches his back and arms. Max raises a brow, glancing over at the tree the light is currently illuminating. 

“Yeah?” He asks, and David nods. He steps away from Max and walks over to the tree, circling it. It’s not far, but Max finds himself uneasy anyways. He follows him over, watching David circle the tree. “What are you looking for?”

“I read in a book that moss grows on the north side of the tree,” David explains with a smile, poking his head out from behind the trunk and looking at Max. “So if we find the moss, we can find north!” 

“Why the hell do we want to go north?” Max asks, watching as David hops over to a different tree. “We want to get back to the path.” 

“Well, which way is the path?” David asks, and Max shoves his palm into his face.

“Listen, David-”

“Shhh.” Wait, what?

“Excuse me?” Max walks over to him, crouching down to his level as David peers out from behind his chosen tree. “David, what the fuck-” 

“Shhh!” David repeats, bringing his finger up to his lips in the universal “quiet” sign. Max stares at him, then carefully flicks off the flashlight. Behind him, he can hear quiet footsteps. The crunching of leaves and branches snapping. Max tries his best to be silent as he turns around, but he’s not a master of the forest. The leaves under his feet crackle and pop like little fireworks, deafening loud in his own head. After the light of the flashlight, the forest seems extra dark. David is still and silent behind him, and Max carefully scans over the dark woods. For a second, he sees nothing. The noises weren’t really there, it’s just their imagination. Then the footsteps get louder and louder and Max turns, giving up on being silent. He scoops David up despite his whispered protests and bolts, tearing through the trees and bushes like he’s being chased. Which, he is. He can hear behind him- noises. Footsteps and panting and  _ something is chasing him _ . He clutches David closer to his chest and ducks under a branch he didn’t know was there- wait, what?- then skids on his feet. For some reason, he doubles back, shutting his eyes and hoping for the best. 

After a little while, he can tell that David is trying to talk to him. He can feel the tree branches hitting his cheeks and face, stinging pain slowly bringing him back. His feet are slowing down and eventually, David’s words poke into his head.

“-t’s gone. Max? Max, it’s gone! We can stop!” All of the sudden, his body becomes his again and it hurts. Max slows to a stop, half-dumping and half-dropping David on the ground before falling to his knees. His face stings like hell and his feet and chest ache like there’s no tomorrow. David is stuck to his side, occasionally glancing up but mostly staring at Max. Max takes a minute, dragging his hand down his face and then looking at it. It’s smeared with something dark, and before he can change his mind he tugs off his sweatshirt and wipes his face with the sleeve, trying to get most of the not-so-mystery liquid off. Damn branches are fucking sharp.

“Max,” David’s tugging his sleeve. “I don’t think we lost it.”

“What?” Max looks up, ready to jump to his feet again, but David shakes his head. 

“I just think it stopped chasing us,” he explains, and Max turns to look at him as best he can in the dark.

“What does that mean?” He asks, and David looks down at the ground. 

“I saw it again,” he says, voice quiet. “I looked back at it.” Max ties his now-ruined sweatshirt around his waist before pressing his fingers into the dirt, feeling the cold, half-decayed leaves and sharp sticks. He almost doesn’t want to ask.

“What’d you see?” He asks, and David looks back up, then out at the forest behind him. He opens his mouth, then shuts it, then opens it again.

“You wouldn’t believe me,” he says, and he sounds so sad and scared that Max has to physically restrain himself from punching the ground. 

“I will,” he promises, and David just looks at him.

“I saw you,” he says, and Max frowns, opening his mouth to interrupt, but David forges on. “But- it wasn’t you. It kept going up and down on all fours or on two feet and I- I could only see your face,” he explains, and Max swallows. 

Okay. So this thing they’re being followed by isn’t human. Fantastic. Great. Whatever it is, it killed Nathan still and appears to be out for their blood too. Awesome. Max hopes this is Campbell’s fault and hopes he’ll be able to sue him over it. He could pay for Max’s college, that would be awesome. But no, he’s pulled out of his fantasy where everything is safe and thrown back into reality. 

“David,” he says, reaching out and putting a hand on his shoulder. “Hey. Listen. I know what you think you saw, and I get that it’s scary right now.” But I can’t deal with the idea that this thing might not be human. “But you’re tired and scared and we just need to focus on getting back to the path right now, okay?” 

“You don’t believe me,” David frowns, glancing away. “...it’s okay. I know what I saw. No one ever believes me, but I saw it.” He doesn’t elaborate, and Max furrows his brows before looking away. 

“We need to keep going,” he says, and David nods. Without argument, he follows Max as he walks. Occasionally, the flash of his shoes lights up the underbrush. Max is wary of their surroundings, the cloudiness from earlier having disappeared when his adrenaline kicked in. He can’t afford to let that happen again- it’s what got them lost in the first place. Whatever’s going on, Max can’t afford to go into shock again. It had to have been shock. 

It had to.

* * *

“Max, I’m tired.” David’s dragging his feet at this point, and Max understands. They’d been walking for what felt like hours, but probably was less. He only got a little sleep earlier, so it’s understandable that he’s tired. But the complaining grates on Max. He’s exhausted too, but not as much as he thinks he should be. It’s the adrenaline, he thinks, as he lifts David once again onto his back. But this time, it doesn’t last as long.

“Kid,” Max says, a few steps into walking again and the pain in his chest making his vision go blurry, “...I think we’re gonna have to stop.” There’s been no sign of whatever David had seen earlier, visually or audibly. They’re alone in the woods once more, or so Max thinks. He hopes. David sighs, but gets down off of Max’s back and then looks around. He wanders over to a fairly clear spot in between some bushes, while Max follows. They both take a moment- Max taking his sweatshirt and lying it in the dirt, David finding some pine needle branches, before they’re both sitting. Well, Max is sitting back against a tree, eyes open and watching. David lies down but sooner than later his head is in Max’s lap and his eyes are shut, sleeping soundly by the looks of it. 

Max is so tired, now that he’s stopped moving. His eyes ache to shut and sleep and he’s sure his eyebags have never been this bad. But every time he shuts his eyes, he can see Nathan’s body or David’s body or- something awful. He can’t close them without being assaulted and he’s sure that if he fell asleep, his dreams would be worse. So he resigns himself to a sleepless night- not like he’s unused to those. It’s just like all-nighters he pulls with video games, he tells himself. Same gory story, same risks, shit like that. Except it’s real and there’s a kid sleeping on his lap that he feels protective over. Max glances down at him and ponders that, reaching out to brush his hair away from his face. It’s red and vibrant, if he recalls, and the dark makes it hard to make out miniscule features but Max can try to fill in the dots. His face looks so little when he’s asleep. It reminds him, again, of when he first met Nikki and Neil and the other kids in their camp. They were all so little then. David’s no different than he was, except maybe a little smarter and a little happier. Max continues playing with his hair as he thinks about it, gently brushing it this way and that. He’s not sure where the sudden nurturing side came from, but he sort of doesn’t want to stop. He never had siblings, the closest he could consider would be his friends. 

Max thinks David wouldn’t be the worst little brother. 

He’s obviously smart- he reads books, he said that shit about moss and trees, right? He’s unfairly optimistic: see, his mother and their issues and the fact he hasn’t broken into an empty shell of himself after all they’d been going through tonight. He’s tough, as evidenced by that as well. While their situations weren’t similar, Max could almost see himself in David. If he could ever get rid of his bad attitude, that is. Which would never happen. 

He lets his hand fall from David’s hair to his shoulder and tips his head back against the rough bark of the tree. Absently, he thinks David would know what type of tree this is. But he’s asleep and Max is not waking him up unless he absolutely has to. It would be best for them to stay here, after all. If they’re quiet and if Max stays awake, they should be safe. Then once morning comes, they can make their way out of the woods easier. That plan sits well with him and he lets his own shoulders relax. They’re okay here, the bushes provide a bit of cover. The idea of safety floods over him and he feels relaxed, more relaxed than logically he knows he should be, but he can’t help himself. David is warm and heavy in his lap in the way only a little kid can be. Max glances upward and looks up at the stars, before letting his eyes slip shut. 

* * *

He hadn't meant to fall asleep. Of course he hadn’t, he knew he has to keep watch over David and the woods. But the stress and adrenaline that was keeping him up abated for a moment and Max was left defenseless. He feels guilty the second he wakes up, but he hardly has time to even process it. David’s shaking him awake silently, eyes wide, and Max’s ears immediately pick up the sound of leaves crunching and sticks. The distinct sound of footsteps, but that’s not all.

It’s his own voice.

“David?” He hears himself calling out and it’s weird- he’s heard his own voice in videos before, but it’s still weird. He can almost separate himself from it, if David didn’t look so scared. “David! Come out, come out, wherever you are. You’re lost, kid.” Both of them share a glance before David tucks himself into Max’s side, hiding his face. Max swallows, staring out into the dark. It seems lighter than before, dawn coming soon and making the sky fair. He can see around them and there’s nothing, but there’s still the sound of footsteps and occasionally, his own voice comes out of the trees. It’s eerie, but neither of them move. 

“Gotcha.” The next time the voice comes, it’s from right behind the tree they’re sat in front of. Max feels his own eyes go wide and he meets David’s frightened gaze. He tips his head, motioning at the woods, and thinks. If they split up, the thing has to go for one of them. And Max is obviously the desired target, to an extent. He leans in a little and David freezes up.

“When I go, you fucking run, Davey,” he whispers to him, and he can hear creaking behind the tree. “Fucking run, and hide.”

“Max,” David whimpers, but Max just shakes his head, takes a breath, and then scrambles to his feet and bolts. He looks back only to make sure David takes off in the other direction- which he does. Then Max turns and runs. He goes in what he thinks is a wide circle, hearing the thing behind him follow. A glance behind him confirmed that it was trailing him, the shape blustering through the leaves and trees with less confidence than Max. Must not have spent summers running through the woods from random shit, Max thinks venomously. He takes a hard right, making to circle back around toward where he left his sweatshirt, but it doesn’t end as he hopes. 

There’s a small hill he doesn’t know about. It dips up and then down. Max goes up it no problem, but coming down is a different issue. His foot catches on some sort of stump or log and Max is down for the count, yelping as he crashes to the forest floor. He rolls for a few feet, one hand going out to soften the fall. It doesn’t really help, the impact crushing into his chest and shoulders and making him wince when the world stopped spinning. He lays there for a moment, only able to hear the rush of blood in his head before forcing himself to focus. If he lays still, maybe the thing won’t get to him, but that’s bullshit. He can hear it. Creeping closer and closer, and he can see the silhouette he thinks, something big and dark and- there’s a flash of light in the distance. Max squints and then shuts his eyes, holding his breath. There’s another soft flash of light that he can see even with his eyes mostly shut. Fuck, David. But as far as Max knows, David didn’t have his flashlight anymore. Then, he recalls.

His shoes.

Max hears the thing see the light. It stops and then turns, then takes off in that direction. Max wants to cry, waiting a moment before struggling and sitting up. He attempts to scramble to his feet but there’s a hand on his arm and he has to slap his free hand over his mouth to keep from saying something stupid in surprise. He turns, and it’s David.

He makes a shushing motion once more, and they watch and listen as the thing disappears into the distance toward the lights. They go off intermittently, and Max glances at David and then down to his socked feet. 

Oh.

After the cracking of branches and noise has disappeared into the distant distance, David and Max get to their feet and start the other way. Max honestly had no idea where he left his sweatshirt and considers it a lost cause now, instead turning his attention to his current physical state.

His arm hurts like a bitch. Even just trying to straighten his arm makes him want to cuss heavily and he bites his lip, holding it back. David glances up at him worriedly, but Max does his best to hide it. It’s not enough.

“Are you okay?” David eventually asks when they’re a good bit away. Max nods, tucking his arm in close to his body. At least his legs were okay.

“Just my arm. My legs are good,” he says, and David nods. 

“Do you think it’s broken?” He asks after a second, getting a bit onto his tiptoes to see Max’s arm. Max shakes his head and hides a smile, rolling his eyes. 

“No, dumbshit. Probably sprained. I’m fine, don’t worry about me. How are your feet?” If David used his shoes as a distraction, that means he can’t really go back to get them.

“They’ll be fine!” He says, and seems so assured, but Max can’t help but worry. 

“Are you sure? There are sharp fucking sticks around,” he points out. David holds up a foot and wiggles his toes. 

“I’ve got thick socks!” He grins and then keeps walking, carefully to keep right by Max’s side as they push through brush and step over rocks. 

“....okay, well. Okay. That was… uh. Clever. Thanks, Davey,” he says, looking down at the kid. He means it too. That had been clever and honestly, probably saved Max from a regrettable fate.

“No problem! I just tied them by their shoelaces to a branch and made it bounce.” He smiles, seeming so proud, and Max has to smile as well.

“It was smart,” he admits, reaching out to ruffle his hair. David grins up at him, then grabs his hand and holds it tight. Max doesn’t shy away from holding it back. “Fucker.”

“You’re mean,” he says, but he’s still smiling from what Max can tell. So he takes it as a win and just holds his hand, making sure to pick a careful path for David to follow on. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING NOW!!!!


	6. i'm gonna murder~ you

“-ure this is the right way?” Max is getting irritated again. The stress is pounding in his head, and David’s insistence on occasionally backtracking is annoying him.

“I’m not fucking sure of anything,” he says, careful not to snap at him, “but this is my best damn guess. If you’ve got any other guesses, then feel free to let me know.” He watches as David looks around, one hand tightly entwined with Max’s. 

“We should go that way,” he says after a second, tugging Max a little to the left. Max honestly doesn’t give a shit anymore which way they go- it’s a gamble any way. So he follows, letting David pull him along like he’s a barge and David’s the tugboat. They go in David’s direction for a little while before David stops. Max is about to ask him what he’s doing, but then he sees why he stopped. There’s a little creek. It’s not big, not really, maybe three feet wide? And not deep at all. 

“Water!” David exclaims, then shushes himself after a glare from Max. “...water!” They stand and look at it for a moment, before David leans over and puts his hand in it. 

“I’m not holding your hand if it’s cold and wet,” Max complains, and David laughs a little. Max rolls his eyes and waits for him to… do whatever. 

“This way!” David asserts after a moment, starting to tromp down the side of the creek.

“Why this way?” Max asks, following him without hesitation. He doesn’t know why, but he sort of trusts David’s weird knowledge of the woods. Every kid had an obsession, he was sort of figuring out David’s was the forest.

“The best way to find people is to follow water downstream,” David explains, picking over a few rocks carefully. “So if we follow this, we’ll find people!” Max raises his brow, but doesn’t argue. He’s heard that once or twice before too, so maybe David knows what he’s talking about.

“Where the hell do you hear all this?” He asks, leaning over to gently nudge David away from the edge of the water and back toward drier land. He goes with, latching onto his arm.

“I read a lot! And I like to watch the TV!” Ah, that explains it. Of course the little fuck likes to read and watch informational TV. What a weirdo. Max carefully feels a rock with his foot before stepping on it, making sure it’s not wobbly. “Actually,” David continues, “maybe we should cross the stream. It’ll hide our scent!” 

“Isn’t that a myth or something,” Max asks, eyeing the stream. It’s not deep, per say, but if one of them falls in it’s going to be a not-great situation. Up ahead though, he can sort of make out some rocks that could be used for crossing. He nudges David forward. “Up there.”

David nods, clambering over a fallen tree and heading the way Max had said. He makes it before Max does, standing on the edge of the water and peering into it. Without any light, the water looks deep and dark, more ominous than Max knows it is. He reaches out and stops David before he can go, shaking his head. 

“Let me go first,” he says, and David pouts but listens to him, thank god. “Follow right in my footsteps, okay?” He makes sure David knows that before starting across the rocks. He tests each one before he puts his full weight on it, and his shoes get a little damp but he makes it across without much issue. David follows, and he makes a face as he reaches the other side.

“I stepped in mud,” he explains, holding up a now-soggy foot. 

“I told you, dude.” Max says, frowning and looking at the foot. “Do you want my shoes?”

“No! They’ll be waaay too big.” Max nods, that’s a fair point. “And stinky.” 

“Hey!” Max gives chase as David darts off to the side, catching him around the shoulders and tugging him into his chest to give him the best noogie he can while his arm’s hurt. David’s giggling like crazy, and Max even cracks a smile. For a second he can forget what they’re running from, but after that second he remembers and slowly lets go of David and sighs. 

“We need to keep walking,” he says, and David huffs a little disappointed noise. But he doesn’t argue, just takes Max’s hand again and keeps walking. 

The woods are getting lighter. Bit by bit as they walk, morning is coming. Or at least, night is getting farther away. Max isn’t sure how long they’d been in the woods- he tugs out his phone just then, figuring he can check the time at least. It turns on and does the display, but he’s seriously got no bars now. The clock reads just after 4 in the morning, which Max is probably sure is the latest David’s ever stayed up. He shoves his phone away and marks it as a lost cause in his head reception-wise. It was always spotty out here anyways. In the middle of the woods? He should’ve assumed it wouldn’t work at all. As they walk, Max feels his feet getting heavy. His thoughts flit from his phone to the ground and David’s bare feet. He really shouldn’t have left his shoes, what if he got hurt? Max blinks, finding his eyes closed, and forces them open again. David seems fine, still walking next to him, but his hand is getting heavy. Max blinks again, watching the ground beneath his feet twirl and spin. 

No, that isn’t right.

He pushes back against whatever’s making him tired. It’s not natural at all, he can tell now. Something’s making him tired, and he has a sneaking suspicion what. 

“David,” he says, blinking hard to keep his eyes open. His grip on Davey’s hand is looser now, and finally it slips out and he lifts it up. His hand feels like lead as he runs it down his face, tugging at his eyes. 

“Max?” David’s looking at him now and they’ve stopped walking. He looks worried, or something, Max can’t tell. His vision is blurry again and the world is spinning. David looks even more worried, reaching out to tug on his shirt. “Max, it’s okay, you gotta stay awake!” 

“What?” He asks, blinking down at him and swaying side to side. He can feel himself slipping, and grits his teeth before lifting his heavy hand and hitting his chest. Pain blooms over his chest like morning glories unfurling on ivy, and it snaps him back to wakefulness for a moment. “David, something’s wrong,” he says, but David doesn’t look surprised. Just worried. He glances around and Max feels the sleepiness coming over again, this time with more vengeance. He fights it again, hitting his chest, but the pain doesn’t help as much this time. He feels dirt on his knees and then David’s at his side, babbling with worry. Max picks up some of it-

“-just don’t fight it and maybe he’ll leave you alone, Max, can you hear me? Max, I- don’t please don’t-”

* * *

Max wakes up alone.

The woods around him are eerily silent. Before, there had been little background noises of woods. Leaves falling, little animals scurrying back and forth, other various noises. But now it was entirely too quiet. 

Max sits up and after taking careful stock of himself, lets himself panic.

David is gone.

He clambers to his feet and freaks out. David is gone, he has no idea how long he was asleep- wait, his phone. He pulls it out, but it won’t turn on now. Fuck, shit, fuck. Max reaches up and pulls his hair, making a choked frustrated noise. He lost David, and all he can see now is David on the floor of the service shed, throat open in a second, gaping red mouth. 

Max makes another noise to himself and has to take a second. He breathes in and out and composes himself, forcing his thoughts to calm down.

David’s gone and he needs to find him. Silently, Max turns in a circle and listens. He can’t hear anything for a moment, but then he can. Footsteps, and then after a second, voices. David’s voice. Max immediately starts walking in the direction he thinks it’s coming from. It’s far enough to be vague noises and no discernable words, but it’s enough for him. Max starts out walking, but then picks up the pace and half-runs, half-jogs through the trees. He can’t see much, but it’s okay. He listens to his voice the best he can and crashes through the trees, blinking back tears. He lost David to this thing, and he’s got to get him back. David’s voice is getting louder, thank god, and nothing hurts anymore. His arm doesn’t ache and his chest is light and free, letting him run without issue. He skids into a small clearing in the brush and scans his eyes over the ground. There. David, looking into the trees and alive and okay. Max wants to cry from relief. Instead, he runs up and hugs him.   
“Thank god,” he whispers, picking David up with all the strength left in his good arm, and hugging him harder. 

“Max?” David’s voice comes from behind him, and Max takes  _ that _ fact in and stiffens. David is in his arms (isn’t he?), but as he turns he sees David, messy, shoeless, tired, and still clutching that stuffed platypus- now more beat up that ever, emerging from the other side of the little empty space. It’s a wonder he’s managed to hold on to that thing. 

Wait. Who’s he holding?

Max chucks whatever he picked up- he doesn’t hesitate to throw the David-sized thing to the side and scramble to real David’s flank. He skids to a stop beside him and David immediately clings onto his side as the thing Max threw staggers to its feet. It’s taller than David and getting taller, slowly morphing into a shape more congruent to Max. Max hardly takes a peek at it before bolting again, tugging David along behind him. He feels bad for dragging David around like this over and over again, but they have to run.

“Wait!” There’s a voice from behind them, and it’s Max’s own voice. He glances back and catches sight of David, wide-eyed in fear. Instead of responding or doing anything, really, Max decides to stop running. He ducks behind a tree and then spots another, motioning for David to be quiet and follow him. They quietly make their way to the fallen tree Max caught a glimpse of, hopping over. Beneath it, there’s a small shallow  bivouac under it. Max tucks David in first, then pushes himself on top of him and waits, holding his breath. There are footsteps above them he can hear, and then, David’s voice. 

“Max?” Max looks at David, whose lips are clamped tightly shut. He shakes his head and then shuts his eyes, bringing a hand up to cover his mouth. Max glances back out at the dark woods and keeps his eyes peeled for any movement near them. But there’s nothing. The footsteps dissipate into the distance and there are no more sounds or voices coming out of the dark. The cloudy feeling that had been encroaching his brain dissipates, and Max counts in his head again to three hundred this time before letting himself crawl out of the overhang. He makes David stay there for a moment, peeking up over the branches before motioning for him to come out. He says nothing, just motions for him to follow. David does so, hand still over his mouth and the other keeping him close to Max. 

Max doesn’t know where he’s going. Currently, his plan is to go the opposite direction of the thing that was chasing them, so that’s what he does. David says nothing about it, just follows. They have to walk until they get out of these stupid woods. Max isn’t sure how far they go, but they’re not  _ that _ deep into the woods. Campbell Amusement Park isn’t too far from busy roads and people, so theoretically, if they keep walking, they’ll reach the parking lot and help. The only thing that spurs Max to keep going and not hunker down for the night is the fact that he knows no one is looking for them. David’s mother left him here on purpose. Max’s parents don’t give a shit. It’s not unusual for him to ignore Nikki or Neil’s messages overnight. No one is going to be looking for them until the morning, and that means tonight, they’re alone. Alone with a sprained elbow if he’s guessing correctly and a monster that’s definitely not human. And David was  _ with it _ . 

He looks over at the kid, who’s trudging and dragging his feet now. He seems so tired and lost and he’s not even trying to hold onto Max’s hand anymore. He just grabs whatever he can, pant leg or shirt hem. Max doesn’t say anything, but he wonders. Why didn’t it hurt him, or go farther? What did it want with him?

“David?” He asks, and David just shakes his head.

“I don’t know,” he says, already having guessed what Max is going to say. Max frowns, glancing up as they walk, then sighs.

“Rule number four,” he reminds him, and he can feel David flinch. So he was lying. 

“Umm… I got sleepy,” he says, and Max trusts he’s not lying by the way his voice gets quieter. “I don’t remember a lot.” That’s fair, Max thinks. He was the one who passed out, after all. Whatever that thing is, it can make him fall asleep so David must be no issue. 

It just raises more questions than answers, though. 

Why didn’t it kill him? Why didn’t it kill David? What even  _ is _ it? Max presses his hand to his face and exhales, feeling David stumble closer to him. 

“I want to go home,” he says, and he sounds so tired and scared. Max stops walking and just stands there for a moment, before turning and kneeling.

“I know,” he says, trying to think of something else to say, something comforting. He comes up with nothing. “Davey, I- shit. I don’t know, okay? I don’t know what’s going on right now, and I.. don’t know it we’ll even make it out of these damn trees. I’m being totally honest with you right now.” He meets David’s gaze and then looks to the side. “I’m sorry. I don’t think I can keep the promise I made to you.” He had never intended to keep it, but admitting it makes it worse. David stares at him for a second, then leans in and hugs him. Max is still, letting the hug happen, but not returning it.

“You’re stupid,” David says, then hugs him tighter. “And a big kid. Not an adult. Just a big kid.”

“Woah, hey, I’m-” Max cuts himself off, licking his lips, then lifts his arms up and hugs David the best he can back. “Okay, fuck it, yeah. Yeah.” He thinks he knows what David’s getting at, and it hurts a little, but makes sense. Max isn’t an adult. He’s not equipped to deal with shit like this- not that he thinks anyone is. But especially not him. David’s being kind in saying that he’s just a big kid. A big kid holding a little kid’s hand and trying his best. He squeezes David a little tighter, then pats his head and moves to stand up again.

“We should keep walking,” he says, and David nods. He reaches up and grabs Max’s shirt and once again, Max feels a twinge in his chest. But it’s not painful or from his bruises, no, it’s warm and light and a little bit happy. He reaches down with his good hand and ruffles David’s hair, then looks ahead of them.

“Hey,” he says, because he can’t stop himself. “You know. After this-” Because there has to be an after to this- “Uh, I have a friend who’s mom is really, really nice. She works with kindergartners. So, if your mom is having trouble, maybe you could… ask to stay with her.” Neil’s mom was a nice lady- she always was the sad one when Max and Neil talked about their plans for college and their future. She was a good mom- the one they gravitate around. David was a good kid, so maybe she’d want to help. David’s quiet for a moment.

“I want  _ my _ mom, though,” he says. Max grits his teeth and thinks he probably shouldn’t have brought this up. 

“I don’t think your mom is… in a good enough place to have you, Davey. She left you alone, and I think she loves you but like… that’s not okay. You’re seven, and smart. Think about why that’s wrong.” Between them it’s silent, and David finally lets out a little wet noise. Max internally punches himself- can’t stay quiet ever, can you? 

“It’s all my fault,” David whispers, and Max again berates himself for fucking up so bad. He shakes his head and takes David’s hand in his own, squeezing it. 

“Kid, no,” he says, then sighs. “Listen. I… my parents don’t like me. They never wanted me, but they never gave me up. Your mom is doing the best she can, okay?” He’s not sure if he himself believes that, but David needs to hear it. Anything to get him to stop crying. After a second David squeezes his hand back and nods. Max lets out a sigh of slight relief, and glances up again. 

“Max?” David’s voice is small, and he glances down again. He’s expecting some questions about his parents or something but David’s staring ahead of them instead. His eyes are wide and reflect a bit of light, and when Max follows his gaze, he’s also staring. 

A circle of dead birds. 

What the fuck.

Max stops in his tracks and David stops as well. He doesn’t follow Max forward as he goes, kneeling and looking at the birds on the ground. They're soft and pretty and their feathers are stained with red blood, and from what Max can tell, it's from a cut to their necks. They're so neatly arranged, like whatever is following them knew they'd see it and left it as a present. Ugh. He swallows and stands back up, going over to David and taking his hand, turning him away from the circle and off in another direction.

“They were so pretty.” David sounds shell-shocked. “Why would he do that?” Max doesn’t answer, just shakes his head and hurries him away. He doesn't want him to see more than he has to. Then, behind them. Crunching footsteps again, and Max can feel his head going wonky. He grits his teeth and then bites his lip, hard. He makes a noise of pain but it brings him back and the taste of iron keeps him there. There’s more light than ever so he glances around, not looking behind him. He can’t look behind him, but- there. There’s a break in the trees. He takes a couple steps forward and sees what he’s been hoping to see for the past night. 

The parking lot, and the rising sun.

Max whoops and scoops up David with his one good arm, hoping David can hold on for the time being as he bolts toward the clearing in the trees. His feet pound the earth beneath them and the trees seem to part for them, leaves crunching beneath his shoes. He can hear crunching behind them too, but he makes it. The trees clear and dirt turns to hard, cold concrete. He can feel tears running down his cheeks and stinging the cuts that litter his face. They made it.  _ They made it _ . Whatever’s out in the forest- it can’t get them out here, he thinks. 

“Suck a fucking dick!” He screams back toward the woods, lifting his bad arm with a wince to flip off the treeline. It’s worth the pain, and he only slows to a walk when he can see his car. It’s there, sitting there innocently just beside the locked front gate. When they’re closer, he sets David down and just holds his hand, instead. His knees ache from running and carrying David onto the concrete lot, but he doesn’t care. He doesn’t care, because they’re safe and about to get the hell out of here. He’s grinning, he realizes, and when he looks down David is grinning too.

“We did it,” he says, and then hugs Max’s legs, tight. Max’s chest is light once more, and he’s happy. He hasn’t been happy in forever, he thinks, and it’s an awesome feeling. They made it out of the woods and into civilization again and they’re going to be okay. They’re going to be okay. Max gently pries him off, then kneels down and hugs him back. All the good feeling in him just pours out into the hug, but he doesn’t elongate it more than he should. After a second, Max peels himself away from David and wipes away his own tears, then David’s. Poor kid is gonna need therapy at this point he’s sure, but at least they’re alive. It’s time to go. He ruffles David’s hair and then stands up, rifling through his pockets for his car keys. David grins, picking up his stuffed ‘pus from where he’d dropped it to hug Max.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” Max says, before checking his other pocket for said keys. Then checking his first pocket again. Then checking the other pocket again. His dread is rising each time his hand switches pockets, and his smile is slowly melting off his face. 

“Max?” David’s tuned into the fear as Max thinks, ignoring his questioning tone. He thinks- where did he last see his keys?

His apron.

He’d left his car keys in his work apron, which he’d taken off before closing the ice cream shop earlier in the night. Before he’d even seen David outside. 

He didn’t have his keys. 

“FUCK!” His hand hits the metal of his car and leaves a dent- small, but it also makes him hiss in pain. It’s his good hand, he doesn’t need to lose mobility of that one too. He shakes it out while dancing from foot to foot, cursing loudly. His keys are still in the park, which he can’t get into, and there’s still something lurking out there in the woods. His phone is still useless and David’s tugging on his arm, begging for him to explain, Max, what’s wrong? Max waves his hand at him and lifts his arm to run his fingers through his hair, catching on tangles and tugging them hard. The pain in his scalp calms him down, makes the rage toward himself a little more manageable. 

“I forgot my fucking keys,” he explains, once he’s got a grip on himself. “In the park. For my car. We can’t get in and I can’t drive, unless you’re a super genius who knows how to hotwire a car?” 

“I… can’t do that.” Of course he can’t, he’s seven. Max pushes his face into the palm of his hand and hisses out a couple swears.

“I didn’t think so. Fuck, I’m stupid.”

“No, you’re not.” David takes his other hand, frowning when Max gets a good look at him. He even shakes his head for emphasis. “You’re scared. It’s okay.”

“...sure,” Max sighs, leaning against his car and peering inside through the windows. It’s dark for the most part, he just wishes he could get inside. They’d be safer there than out in the open, but he can’t do shit without his keys. David leans against Max and he reaches out, ruffling his hair. “We’ll just… stay here until someone comes. Okay? People are gonna be lookin’ for me.” He hopes, at least. He checks his phone again and it’s still not working, no bars and fritzed out. Nikki and Neil are smart enough to know that it’s bad when he goes radio silent, right? Then they’d go to his parent’s house and find out he never came home, then come here. They’d watched enough detective movies together to know what to do, right?

“Max?” His logical thoughts are interrupted by David’s voice, and he looks down at him.

“Sup?” He asks, but immediately he knows something is wrong. David’s not looking at him and his mouth is firmly closed, eyes wide as he stares across the parking lot. Max registers that David’s voice hadn’t been from right beside him. It had been softer, more distant.

He looks up.

David- no, not David. Something that  _ looks _ like David is stepping out from the treeline. The sun hasn’t risen fully yet so it’s face is slightly hidden by shadow, but it’s David’s size and shape. Every time Max tries to get a good look at it, his eyes shift slightly to the side. He can assume what it looks like, his mind filling in the gaps to tell him it’s David, but when he tries to focus directly on the details, it slips away. All he can parse from it is dark shapes and shadows.

“What the fuck,” he whispers, and David makes a soft noise. Max is about to run again, but David breaks away and marches forward a couple steps. He goes to follow, reaching out with a reprimand on his lips, but David speaks before he can stop it.

“Go away!” He yells, tiny hands balled into fists at his side. “I told you go away and you  _ didn’t _ !” 

The thing tips it’s head, David’s face grinning back at them. When it speaks, it’s David’s voice, but different. It’s thicker and heavier and it gives Max a tiny headache right in the center of his forehead, it makes his arm and chest ache more than they were before. “I didn’t want to. I like hanging out with you.” The voice sends literal chills down Max’s spine.

“This isn’t hanging out! You’re scaring me! You’re scaring my friend!” Max’s cold heart is almost warmed by the sentiment, but he’s having trouble focusing again. No, he can’t, he tries to bite his lip but it’s not working, and his head hurts. Something’s cracking down the middle of it.

“Your friend? He’s your friend? He’s a butthead teenager who’s going to turn you into the police! _ I’m _ your friend! I’m the one who helps you!” It’s voice deepens, layering with something darker. 

“No! You’re not. You’re scary and mean and awful. And I told you to go. Away!” While saying this, David leans down and scoops up a moderate-sized rock. As Max fights against his growing headache, he chucks it. David’s got good aim and the rock hits his double- right in the face. It staggers back with it’s hand going over it’s face, doubling over. After a second, it stands back up, stretching up taller than it was before. It’s got Max’s face now, with a bloody nose and a cut just above it’s eyebrow.

His headache becomes blinding. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> max: this childsize thing empty, YEET


	7. eat shit, dickwad

Max never dreams.

He used to dream when he was a kid- young and full of pessimism, not hope. He used to have these awful nightmares where the world would collapse around him and become empty and big and all that would be left would be him, hiding in some dark corner and hoping for the world to come back. Or they’d be variations of horror movies he’d watched but this time, he’s scared of them. Or even more sometimes, it’d be his parents. Those were the scariest. Sitting in his room and watching the door and the shadows underneath it as his parents argued and argued. They’d argue for hours and he would be stuck without food and comfort. 

Those were the worst.

He often woke up to arguing, so when his ears picked up the sound he wasn’t surprised. Grumbling, Max attempted to shift over in his bed. But the sheets weren’t mildly scratchy like normal. No, they were way scratchier. And definitely not sheets at all. And the arguing, now that Max was paying more attention, wasn’t two voices. It was one, and then another that sounded similar to the first. He attempted to focus on them, but they kept slipping in and out of his grasp.

“-old you not to do that-”

“-stupid kid, not like-”

Max sighs, wiggling again, but finds it hard. His chest and arm ache, all the sudden, as well as his lip. And forehead. Jesus fucking christ, his whole existence is in pain right now. Every little movement lights up another area to worry about. But- wait. What is going on? His head is getting clearer with every second and suddenly, things are rushing back. Campbell’s Amusement Park, David, the thing in the woods. David and the thing in the woods. Max grunts, rolling over and feeling his arm twinge in pain.

“-e’s moving now! You woke him up!” The voices are clearer now and finally Max opens his eyes.

It’s brighter than he remembers it being when he fell asleep? Passed out? The sun is up higher and more vibrant than it was before, and Max has to squint before attempting to sit up. He feels a hand on his shoulder and glances over, blinking at the figure. It takes a moment to come into focus, but after a second his eyes find David’s face.

“Are you okay?” He looks worried, and Max has to take a second to find his words. When he does, they are scathing.

“What the fuck is going on?” Shit, he hadn’t meant to sound so angry. But he was angry, and upset with David. Something was going on to an extent that he couldn’t understand. “David, just- what’s going on?” David looks at him, then looks away. There’s another hand on Max’s shoulder and he flinches, not daring to look behind him. It’s less like a hand and more like a looming presence, cold and unyielding. 

“Don’t talk to him,” it says, and Max fights the urge to shiver. David’s not looking at him anymore- he’s looking behind him and just over his shoulder, eyes fixed on something that Max desperately doesn’t want to think about. 

“But-” David tries to argue, but the thing’s grip on Max’s shoulder increases. 

“No buts. You said you wanted him to be okay? Then don’t talk to him.” David frowns, looking between Max and the thing over his shoulder, then shakes his head.

“No. You can’t stop me,” he says, making his best angry face at the thing. It’s kind of adorable, but Max can’t focus on that right now and instead is trying to hide his fear. “He’s mine, not yours, and it doesn’t matter what face you take this time!” Max swallows, then speaks despite the lump in his throat. 

“Both of you knock it the fuck off,” he says, faking bravado. “And  _ one of you _ tell me what the fuck is going on.” He honestly didn’t care who told him what was going on, just that he was informed. David still won’t look him in the eyes, but the thing holding onto his shoulder slowly moves it’s grip up to his neck. Fuck. 

“He’s awfully rude,” it comments, tapping fingers along his nape. “I don’t like him.”

“You’re mean too.” David frowns at a point just over his head. “And I don’t like you. But you’re still here.” 

“Wow, he’s rubbing off on you.” The thing chuckles and a finger taps on top of Max’s head and this time he can’t suppress the shiver that runs down his spine. “I hate it. Leave him alone, let me put him to sleep, and we can go.”

“I don’t want to go with you!” David’s on the verge of tears and as he speaks, a few roll down his cheeks. “I only said I would so you wouldn’t hurt Max! You’re mean and bad and you hurt people, you hurt birds, you hurt my mom! I don’t want to be your friend anymore.” 

“We’re always going to be friends, David.” The hand travels up the back of his head, until it’s resting on the top of his head. David reaches out and then pauses, hand hovering just over Max’s. 

“No. No we’re not. I’m a big kid now, just like Max, and he’s not scared of anything. So neither am I, and that means that I’m not scared of you. Not anymore.” He says, reaching out and taking Max’s hand. 

“Oh, Davey… you were scared of me?” The hand disappears off of Max’s body and he sees it above him then. A hand reaching out to David, shadowy and glitching and the same color of Max’s own skin. “You were never supposed to be scared of me.” Max can see the way David’s eyes flicker from his face to the thing’s hand. 

“Don’t,” he whispers, but David lets go of his hand and then reaches up. He takes the thing’s hand and doesn’t seem scared- even though he just said he is. “David,” Max says, and David just gets to his feet slowly. He’s still holding the thing’s hand, and Max finally turns around as David walks around him.

The thing is his size. His height, his skin color, and his face. Max is staring at his double, and as he stands there he can watch it solidify as it takes him in as well. He struggles to his feet as David follows it a few feet away.

“Max,” it says, and he stands his ground. “Max. Maaax.” It’s throwing his name out, tossing the word in the air and playing with it. “I like that name. I think I’ll keep it.”

“It’s mine,” Max hisses, taking a step forward. “What the fuck are you? Some imaginary friend that gained a fucking conscious?” The thing with Max’s face hums, then leans in close to him.

“Well, yes, in a sense. I was David, then I wasn’t, but he’s still mine.” The smile that spreads across its face is eerie, and Max feels like he’s looking at a mirror in a funhouse. It’s him, but not. 

“He doesn’t belong to you, you fucking sicko. He’s a person, not something to own,” Max snaps, stepping forward to chase after but his head is cloudy again. He glares and stays where he is, feeling the sensation disappear. 

“It doesn’t matter, he’s still mine.” It smiles at him once more, gently tugging David to it’s side and putting his free hand on his shoulder. David looks distinctly uncomfortable, glancing up at Max’s doppelganger.

“Dan-” He starts to say something- a name? But it stops him, squeezing his shoulder hard enough that Max can see David wince. 

“Don’t call me that. I’m Max now. I’ve always been Max. And I rescued you from the deranged killer in the park, who unfortunately… won’t make it to the police station.” Not-Max looks up at him again, and Max’s heart freezes in place. He smiles, and Max wants to throw up but his head is heavy and his feet are failing in keeping him upright. 

“No! No you didn’t!” David struggles in his grip, but can’t get out. Max takes a step forward when he winces again- the thing is hurting David, he can’t let him do that. He blinks and tries to keep his eyes open, but he can really only focus on his own smiling face, now. “I’ll tell the truth! I won’t let them think you’re Max!” Max watches as his own face loses it’s grin and glances down to the side, taking on a more menacingly annoyed expression.

“Shut up, Davey. You’re traumatized and confused,” he says, but it’s not gentle. It’s harsh and commanding and it makes Max wince. 

“Stop it,” he says, and then again and louder. “Stop it.” 

“No,” the thing says, turning it’s eyes back to Max and meeting his gaze defiantly. It’s a look Max knows well. He’s worn it more than any other expression in his life. “It’s time to be done.” 

Max agrees.

He fumbles forward through the fog and swings the flashlight that he had shoved in his back pocket earlier. It’s not huge and not too heavy, but Max has experience throwing shit at people. Just as he thought, the other him was more corporeal now. He has weight and existence in a way that Max thinks he’s losing. 

“MAX!” He can hear David shriek as the other him sidesteps, only for Max to bring his other hand up and push. It lands solid and the other him stumbles backwards, giving Max a moment to look around. He finds David stumbling the other way, looking shell-shocked and scared, so Max gravitates toward him. He rushes toward him as his thoughts clear and reaches out, but David flinches back.

What?

“David,” he says, and he sees his eyes clear from the terror they’d held only a moment before. “It’s okay-”

“No!” David digs his feet in the dirt- Max only now notices they’re almost to the treeline again, off the concrete of the parking lot- and launches forward. He moves past Max’s side and Max whirls around, only for David to hit the other Max’s stomach. They both go down like heavy rocks, David on top, and he scrambles off in a flash. Little kids are like monkeys, but other Max doesn’t seem to realize that as he- it? It rolls on the ground for a moment before popping back up to its feet. David’s crying again, and he manages to get words out.

“I don’t believe in you anymore!” He says, and to Max it sounds a little silly but to the creature, it seems bigger. It flinches like it took a physical blow from the words, and David latches on to that. “I don’t need you! I don’t believe in you! You’re not my friend!” The other Max’s face contorts into a grimace, and Max and David stand there as it flickers. Literally flickers. It goes through a variety of shapes all in a flash- small, David-sized, bird sized, adult-sized, a few random others that Max can’t make out. But finally, it ends up back in Max’s face. It breathes hard, looking down at its hands before looking up once more.

“You little bastard,” it growls, taking a step toward David, but Max interferes.

“Hey, fucker!” He yells, storming forward in a moment of terror and courage, to give his copy a shove in the chest. It stumbles backwards but shakes it off, glancing between David and Max, both of them staring back. David is off to Max’s side, but before he can try to go over to him, Other Max holds out his hand. It starts to elongate and change, shifting from brown skin to black  _ something _ , icky and shadowy. It’s fingers push out into space and lengthen into what Max can only call claws. They’re long and sharp-looking and Max now knows what killed Nathan. It finishes growing out it’s knife-hand before giving it a good shape and locking it into form. The black becomes less shadow and more obsidian, and then it’s lunging forward at Max. He stumbles away to the side, avoiding the slash by mere inches and then quickly turning backwards. The thing hasn’t gotten all of it’s bearings yet. It stumbles on Max’s feet and takes a moment to resteady itself before turning to him again. Now it’s between Max and David, and subtly Max tries to say that David should run and go and hide or get help. He can’t decide which to motion though, so what ends up happening is a mix of all three. David just looks confused.

“I am so tired,” the thing says, “of pretending like I want to be this kid’s friend. You know what? Fuck it.” Another thing Max finds strange and awful- hearing his own voice saying his favorite phrase. It really throws you through a loop, but the thing isn’t done. It cracks it’s neck to the side and the shape settles more, more details coming through in the replica. “I’m just going to kill both of you and call it a night.” 

“Fuck you, you shapeshifting bastard,” Max spits at him, trying to draw attention to himself. “No one’s going to fall for this shit. You’re not going to  _ fool _ anyone.”

“But I won’t try.” The thing grins at him, all wicked teeth and wow, Max never knew his smiles could be so creepy. It lifts its knife hand and picks at its teeth, inspecting the knife hand afterward with an interested look. “The poor neglected teen went batshit one night and killed the security guard and lost child at the park, then returned home in the morning after painting the park with their guts.” It takes a step forward, and Max takes one back. “He then snapped once more, and murdered his stupid mother and father, only to be sent off somewhere- prison or institution, I don’t care. Within a month I’ll be able to leave this form and seek strength somewhere else, leaving a hollow shell behind.” Max stares at the thing, watching his own mouth curve upwards and a laugh leave his own mouth. God, he is so fucked and he can’t even figure out how to stop it.

“What the hell are you?” He finally asks, taking another step back as it approaches. Other Max whips its arm out, pointing the sharp end at him and advancing, Max stumbling backwards to match each step.

“I’m  ████.”  Max must look visibly confused, because the thing’s expression morphs into frustration. It repeats itself. “ ████ .”

“How the fuck are you doing that with your voice?” Max asks, and Other Max snaps it’s gaze up to meet his. 

“Shut up and ignore it. I’m a demon. A fairy. I’m whatever your mind wants me to be, I’m your best imaginary friend.” It puts on a fake, cheery voice for the last part, and smiles really wide. Max suddenly understands how this thing could get David to be friends with it- a charming play buddy for a lonely kid? Who can turn into anything? It’s easy to see how that would be appealing. Max just shakes his head though and ignores it, trying to make logical sense in his head.

“Stop fucking with me. I’m not a little kid, so just tell me what you are,” he tries to push, insisting, but the thing sighs and steps closer. This time, it catches Max on the chin and he feels a sharp pain, raising a hand as he staggers backwards. They come back damp and red. He wipes them on his jeans, and keeps his eyes on Other Max, but behind him, he can see Davey edging down the parking lot. He’s putting more and more distance between them, which is good. He got Max’s hint. The thing hasn’t seemed to notice yet, too focused on Max and their chat, which it apparently is done with continuing. It frowns, then lunges forward again with its sharp fingers. Max dodges best he can, but he ends up with another cut on his cheek. 

“I’m a nightmare,” it says, leering at him as Max steps into the lot and into the soft rays of morning sunlight. If he can just distract it and keep himself alive long enough- he dodges another swipe from the fingers. It’s playing with him. He’s not fucking stupid. This thing could kill him in a second if it wanted to, but it wants to play for now. So Max plays along, picking up a rock and chucking it at it. 

“Why are you doing this?” He asks, “Why did you want David? Just- fucking why?” 

“Do things really need answers?” The creature dances with him, sidestep to sidestep, elegantly reaching out occasionally to swipe at Max’s chest or face. He gets a few more hits in, cutting with a blade so sharp Max hardly feels them at first. 

“Of fucking course I need answers, you shit for brains.” Max’s head is getting heavy again, but he refuses to let it take over. Not this time. He’s not falling asleep again. “I want to know what made you think you have a fucking right to some kid. Or me. Or my life. Guess what, loser, I’ve always wanted to die. You couldn’t have picked a more perfect target!” That.. was an admission Max never thought he would’ve said to himself. It even makes him pause, but only for a moment before the thing is stepping forward and forcing his chin up with prickly sharp claws. 

“Then why are you fighting so hard to survive?” Other Max grins at him, green eyes glinting. “I’ll give you an answer for an answer.” Now that it’s playing games, Max can handle this. He opens his mouth to answer, and the thing watches with anticipation.

“I was giving him time to get away.” He’s brutally honest, and it’s so satisfying to watch recognition dawn on the thing’s face. Even if it’s technically Max’s, it looks betrayed and horrified and a touch bit worried. That gives him hope, even as the thing whips its head around to scour the nearby area. David’s long disappeared down the main road, or so Max thinks. He didn’t really follow his movements, just kept an eye on him long enough for Max to know that he was out of sight. And now, Other Max is distracted. Real Max grits his teeth and tugs his arm back, then hopes his hunch is right and swings his fist upwards into the creature’s chest. 

When the thing turned into Max, the details were blurred. It looked more like if someone had drawn Max from memory, or if he’d been the star of a picture on a really foggy day. As time passed, it had become more detailed. Even down to the dirt on his yellow shirt, the bloody cut above his eyebrow, and the swelling and bruises around his elbow. When it formed it’s claws, it didn’t form them on that arm and hardly moved it as they fought and chatted. So Max had a thought- if it took on his physical form in the moment, did it take on all the injuries? He’s pushing it, but he thinks maybe if he hits it in just the right place he’ll be able to incapacitate it for a moment. 

His hunch proves right.

He nails the creature right in the spot where Max’s own chest aches the worst, and it doubles over in pain with a wheezing wail. Max doesn’t stick around to see the aftermath- he just slams his fist into the side of it’s head and then bolts. He can hear angry wailing from behind him and spares a glance once he thinks he’s far enough away.

It’s glitching. That’s the only way Max can describe it. It no longer looks like him, or well, it does, but it’s horribly misfigured. Shadows dance over his skin and collect on wounds and his legs are lengthening as it gets up from where it had fallen. It wails again, a noise that’s definitely inhuman, and Max continues to book it. 

He runs down the main road and away, down the path he thought he saw David inching toward earlier. He’s praying for him to have come this way. His feet are pounding the ground with each footstep, every motion sending alarm bells through his body. He’s been through enough in the past ten hours, and it’s starting to really take a toll. He’s got no more adrenaline left, but he forces his legs to run. The breeze rings in his ears and so does the sound of angry monster- it’s wailing still, and making a noise that sounds suspiciously like his own name. Max keeps running.

The road takes a sharp left about five hundred feet away from the parking lot, and Max takes it like a champ. He hardly has to stop, and then, he sees them.

David, a little way down the road, with a stopped car. 

A beautiful, beat up, baby blue pickup truck. 

“NIKKI!” He roars, pushing air he didn’t even know he had out of his chest. He can see three heads poke up from where they were standing beside the truck, and thank god, it’s Neil too. They’ve got David. David’s safe.

Max wants to cry but he can’t. He wants to stop, but he can’t. He just keeps going until he slams into someone’s arms- it’s Neil he finds out after a moment and after his ears adjust from the blood rushing in them. He staggers a little and then pushes Neil away, out of the weird embrace he’d just put them in, and reaches for the truck door.

“Everyone in, in, in,” he insists, voice rising with each word and speaking over Nikki and Neil’s clamoring voices. They’re asking what’s wrong and what’s going on and the sentiment is sweet but Max doesn’t have time for this. “Get in!”

“Max, you look like shit!” Neil exclaims, then glances at David. Max wonders what he’s been able to tell them but says nothing, just snatching David by the waist and hoisting him up and into the cab. 

“What’s going on??” Nikki asks, her eyes lighting up a little bit at the prospect of adventure- but she’s clearly still worried. She’s not smiling. Max glances into the cab and sees the keys are still in the ignition, which is good. Beyond them, a roar sounds. The wailing has stopped, but it’s coming. They’re going to need the car. 

“Is it a hellhound???” Nikki asks, even as Max is shoving her into the driver’s seat and Neil is squishing himself beside Max. David’s in the back, the three of them up front. “Oh! Or is it a bear?? That’s actually wayyy more likely, forget the hellhound idea-” She puts the truck in drive and starts forward, cruising onto the other side of the road and getting ready to pull a U-turn. 

“Nikki!” Max interrupts her, finally having caught his breath after his dash down the road. “Shut up, it’s not any of that-” He ends up not having to explain, as the creature rounds the corner and skids into a few trees, knocking them down unceremoniously.

“Holy shit,” Neil says, voice hardly above a whisper, and the creature roars once more. Neil repeats himself. “Holy  _ shit _ .” It lets out a mangled cry that he can make out to be Ḿ̴̨̳̭̥͈̓ͅȂ̷̛̳̙͓̮̪͉͔͔̯͎̠͙̋͜X̴̭̞̝̯̹̞̲͕͉̺̮̹̑̓̈́̋͠͠ and then again- D̴̡͎̝͕̼̰̙̆̔̔͒̂Ạ̷̫̣̞͚̭̮͚̖̰͝V̴̳͇͓͍͎͊̌̕I̶̹̪̞͍̘͚̼͈̮̾̊̉͒͜͝͝D̴̢̝͖̺͓͚͑̓͋͑͝. The thing starts lurching toward them- it’s on all fours now. It’s no longer a copy of anything they can see or a replica of any of them- it’s something entirely monstrous and huge. It’s larger than a bear, maybe about the size of a moose, with long limbs made of the same obsidian of its claws. It’s unsteady on them, obviously not used to walking on all fours, but it does it’s best as it jerks down the road and toward the car. The only thing that isn’t black now is it’s eyes, bright vibrant green orbs of light that shine and stare into the cab of the truck. 

“Daniel,” David whispers behind them, and he sounds crushed. More crushed than someone should be after witnessing and running away from a monster like that. Max reaches back and feels a small hand slip into his own. He gives it a squeeze.

“Nikki,” he says, looking over and meeting her confused, enthusiastic, frightened gaze. “Gun it.”

She does so with a war cry. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i physically shook while writing this in a spurred moment at midnight  
fun fact: nikki got her license first. who gave this woman a car. what. 
> 
> one chapter left yall


	8. goodnight

While he’s in the hospital, Max reads.

His phone works now- they found it on the ground by his car apparently, at his request. It’s back to normal, with full bars and only a cracked screen as evidence of that night. He uses it in that cold white hospital room to try and figure out what exactly, they had killed.

The police didn’t know what to make of it, that’s for sure. The blow from Nikki’s car had made it’s unstable state even more unstable and as they skidded into a tree (giving everyone a nice case of whiplash and Max a pretty bad concussion from the windshield) it had wailed and screamed and finally, writhed itself into a small, dead shape. In the end, they’d called it a man. It was pretty humanoid in its final form, long gangly limbs and tufts of hair and something like a face. They called it a man and said it was a John Doe loony from some mental institution, who was just deformed from living out in the woods by Campbell’s Amusement Park. They said he’d snapped and chosen one night to go into the park and inflict a reign of terror, then they said when the teenagers hit him with the car it deformed him even more. So much so that the coroner had a hard time calling it human.

But Max reads while he heals, and reads some more. For every ton of bullshit he finds, there’s a gram of truth. Imaginary friends, fairies that shapeshift, demons that promise you your every wish. In the end he’s no closer to giving whatever it was that chased them a name, but he doesn’t need to. David’s already given it one.

They weren’t allowed to see each other for the first few days into the hospital, but eventually Max weaseled his way into getting him to visit. All thanks to the coolest fucking nurse in the hospital, Meredith. Ered to her friends. 

David had explained everything to Max the best he could. He described the imaginary friend he’d had since birth, the one affectionately dubbed “Daniel”. He described how it could look like him, or like his mom, or like a lion. And how he’d promised to always be Daniel’s friend. But then, he said, Daniel asked him to do bad stuff. Say mean things and do awful things, and eventually, Daniel forced him. He made him throw tantrums and made him yell at his mom, and eventually, convince his mom she was going crazy. But instead of getting to stay with Daniel in his house and living by himself, David’s mom took him out. She promised him ice cream, got him said ice cream, then took him outside into a small alley, and left him. He honestly thought it had been a game, and had fallen asleep.

That’s when Max found him, and when Daniel caught up. 

From there it had just been a whirlwind of confusion and fear. He tells Max that he wishes he could’ve told him about Daniel from the start- but they’d promised each other never to tell on the other. And Daniel was very, very strict about his promises. 

Once David’s done telling his stories, Max gathers him up in his hospital bed and hugs him. He hugs him long and hard despite the bandages and warnings from nurses about his chest and concussion. He doesn’t care. 

“You believe me?” David asks after the hug has gone on for more than five minutes. Neither of them are planning to stop any time soon.

“Of fucking course I believe you,” Max snorts, burying his face in red hair. “I was there for half of it, kid.” 

“I know.” David sighs, wrapping his arms around Max’s neck a little tighter. “But I know no one else will believe me.” 

“Fuck ‘em,” Max says, and laughs as David tips his head back to glare. “I know, language. But seriously. Fuck ‘em. You know what you saw and I do too. They have their excuses, we have ours. It doesn’t change what really fucking happened, and in the end, all that’s important is that what happened was really shitty.” David seems to stop and absorb this, before plonking his head back down on Max’s shoulder. 

“Okay,” he says, sounding convinced. “...it was really fucking shitty.”

“David! What the hell?” Max has a hard time keeping laughter out of his voice, and David is openingly giggling. 

“Monkey see monkey do,” he explains, moving away from their hug to make monkey noises and scratch at his head. “You’re a bad influence.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Max says, but he’s smiling even as he reaches out to give Davey a noogie. 

* * *

Max is in the hospital for three days and six hours. After getting x rays and examinations, his official diagnosis is a long list of things. Lacerations, a badly sprained elbow, multiple bruised ribs and bruises in the area, whiplash, and a concussion. He’s kept in the hospital for those three days, mostly on watch- just to see if his chest gives him any breathing troubles, and to make sure he doesn’t do anything too crazy with his concussion. It’s mild, but they take that shit seriously. By the time he’s discharged, he’s given strict instructions to rest and relax. It’s hard to do that though with the police at your every turn.

The hospital keeps them out for the first day, but on the second he has to give an interview. He’s also thanked many times- apparently surviving something like this and managing to do so with a child in tow is hard? Yeah, right. Haha. Hah. He keeps it purposefully vague and ambiguous as to who could’ve attacked them- he also gets to find out how David’s doing then and what’s going to happen to him. 

Therapy and foster care is the short answer. Max tries to be stoic, but it’s hard. The police thank him for his time, and only come back to offer a brief explanation as to where their attacker came from. By then, Max already knows more than they do. So do Nikki and Neil- they come clamoring in the moment they’re allowed, demanding explanations. 

So Max tells them the whole story from start to finish. By the end, Neil has a terrified, shocked look on his face and Nikki is grinning, not having moved from her spot on the end of Max’s bed throughout the whole tale.

“You’re a hero!” She cries, bouncing forward to either crush or hug him, Max isn’t sure. He takes whatever it is, ribs creaking, and after a moment, hugs back. Neil joins in a second later and Max lets the stupid thing continue for maybe another minute before shoving them both off.

“Gay,” he complains, “and you’re crushing my already crushed chest.” 

“You made me crush my car,” Nikki points out, pouting at him. “So I think I have a right to crush your chest.” 

“That shitbag deserved to be junked.” Max grins at her, dodging his bear she throws at his head. 

“PATRICIA DID NOTHING WRONG!!!” Nikki yells, slipping off the bed to lie on the floor and moan.

“Nikki, this is a hospital,” Neil points out, peering off his side of the bed down at her and shuddering at the thought of what might be on the floor. “That’s disgusting.” Max looks between them, then settles back into his shitty hospital pillows with the tiniest of smiles.

“I missed you shits,” he mutters, mostly to himself, and then looking upwards. He reaches up and snags Mr. Honeynuts from where he’d landed on the headboard, looking carefully at his bear as Nikki and Neil argue in the background about hospital sanitation procedures. Frowning, he interrupts them unceremoniously.

“Hey,” he says, “could you guys do me a solid?” 

* * *

Max gets out of the hospital before David. If he has to guess why, it’s probably because David’s mom abandoned him and they’re trying to get him a case worker and blah blah blah. Max isn’t nuanced in social work. But he’s let out before him and sent back to his own home. He only lets himself suffer there for a few minutes at best- enough to openly ignore his parents and get ignored in return. He packs a bag of essentials, and ditches. He knows they won’t follow. 

He goes to Neil’s house and puts his shit down and pick up something, then leaves. He’s definitely not supposed to be driving with a concussion or with only one arm, but he does anyways. The hospital’s not far. 

“Hi,” Max says, and the girl at the reception stares at him. Yes, he knows he looks like shit, but seriously? She’s just being rude. “I want to see someone.”

“Name?” She asks, once she’s overcome her mini staring session. She immediately looks down, brown hair flopping in front of her eyes as she clicks on the computer.

“David Adelard,” Max says, and she types something in. After a moment, she looks up.

“What’s your relation?” She asks, looking pained to have to ask it. “He’s- it’s for safety.” 

“Are you serious?” Max tips his head back and groans, then puts on his best stink eye and looks her dead in the face. “Brother.”

“Floor 6, room 12!” She says quickly, and then leans forward to push a roll of stickers toward him. “Pediatrics. Here, take one of these for visitors.” He takes a minute and pulls off the sticker, slapping it on the leg of his jeans, then heads down the hall to find David. After getting lost in a different floor, he finally makes it up. He’s sure people are looking at him weird, some teenager walking around in a sling and carrying a bag in the pediatrics ward. But he ignores it, and finds room 12. 

He makes his way inside, shutting the door halfway behind him. It’s a hospital room for sure- white floor and walls and two beds. The other in unoccupied and the TV on, and David is in the bed facing the TV. He’s sitting up and dressed, eyes on the television, but they turn to Max as he walks in.

“Max!” He grins, bouncing over to the edge of the bed as he comes in. “I thought you left!”

“Yeah, I did,” he says, but then holds up the bag he’s holding. “But you forgot something by my car.”

“What?” David looks confused, and Max goes over to sit with him. He reaches in, and pulls out the platypus. David stares between him and the toy, then reaches out to take it from him.

“I dropped him,” he says, staring at the toy. 

“Yeah, you did. But Nikki and Neil found it for me the other day. I figured you might want him back- you got pretty attached the other night.” David grins at him, and leans against Max’s side after a moment, crushing the stuffed animal to his chest. 

“Thanks, Max,” he says, and Max feels his chest implode. He reaches around and puts his arm around David’s shoulder, hugging him closer to the side.

“No problem,” he says, and they sit there for a moment. David is the first to pull away, crawling up his bed to put the platypus against his pillows. Max sets his bag down and turns, sitting criss cross on the edge of the bed and watching him. 

“So,” he says, trying to make his voice disinterested. “They figure out what to do with you yet?” 

“A lady came and talked to me. She says I can’t go back to my mom.” He sounds so sad. Max frowns.

“Well, nah. I get that.” Max says quietly, and David leans against his pillows, picking up the platypus and hugging it. He looks at Max, eyes narrow. 

“What?”

“She left you alone, Davey,” Max explains as gently as he can, which isn’t gently at all. David hugs his stuffed toy harder, shutting his eyes.

“But it was Daniel’s fault!” He complains, and Max doesn’t want to see him cry, so he tries to placate. Maybe he shouldn’t have brought this up, fuck.

“We know that, but they don’t,” he says, softening his voice and trying to be quieter. 

“....I don’t want to go to some random family. I want to go to my mom. Or you! Can you take me?” Max can tell when he has the idea, eyes opening and lighting up to look at him. Max winces a little. He’s not even a proper adult, but David wants him to look after him? Max can hardly imagine the pedestal he’s been put on.

“Uh,” Max isn’t sure how to proceed. “...no. I can’t. I’m not old enough, Davey, plus like, I’m not responsible enough and shit.”

“Oh.” He sounds so disappointed, and Max has to look away. He wishes he could help but it’s just not.. possible. He’s banking on talking to Neil’s mom, but even that’s a farfetched wish at this point. 

“Hey,” he says, looking back over at David. “We can stay in touch though. Phone calls and texts and stuff. Okay? We’ll get you a phone and shit.” 

“Really?” David seems excited at the prospect, staring at him with wide eyes. “I’ve never had a phone before!” Max smiles, leaning back on his good arm and nodding. 

“Sure, we’ll get you one. It won’t be the latest fancy schmancy shit, but.” He doesn’t have enough in his savings to buy a brand new Iphone X or whatever the hell they’re coming out with now, but he can David something at least so he can stay in touch and maybe play a couple games on it. Or get nature apps. Or something he’d like. Max smiles as David bounces up and down on the bed, laughing and thanking Max.

“No problem,” he says, reaching out to shove his shoulder gently. “Damn, you’re gonna break the bed.” 

“No I’m not!” 

They hang out for a few hours, Max sticking by his side even when David’s social worker comes in and introduces herself. Max doesn’t bother remembering her name, he knows that they rotate like crazy. She thanks him for his help with David and asks him a few questions about how he found David, but other than that they’re left alone. They watch TV and Scooby Doo and Max does some browsing on ebay and finds an iphone 5 for around sixty bucks. He can manage that. He checks with David and then buys it, smiling to himself. As they sit together, he’s hit by the ache to protect David, keep him safe. He wants him to be happy like this for the rest of forever, and it’s a weird feeling. It sits heavy and warm in his chest and fills his lungs with each breath, leaking out his mouth through a smile. Max isn’t used to feeling like this, but he thinks he likes it. He thinks he wants to keep feeling like this. But then the realization- David’s going to be put into a system and Max will probably have minimal contact, even with a phone. And David’s a kid. He’s going to grow up and forget or therapists are going to convince him of logical things that could’ve happened instead of what actually did.

Max pushes that thought aside and focuses on the now. 

Eventually he’s kicked out kindly by a nurse and sent on his way home. He makes it back to Neil’s house perfectly fine and decides to call it a night, thanking Neil’s mom for her help. She’s really a sweet lady, sending him upstairs with a plate of food and telling him to holler if he needs anything. 

He hopes she agrees when he asks her tomorrow about watching David.

Neil is asleep already when he goes into his room, so he makes sure to be quiet when he gathers his pajamas and heads to the bathroom. The way that their house is set up, Max is able to sleep on a futon upstairs in their guest room that has slowly turned into a mixture of Nikki and Max’s room. He sets his bag of essentials in there and then goes to change, checking his bandages in the mirror carefully. He’s got butterfly ones over the slashes on his face and one on his collarbone, and then stitches just above his eyebrow. He leans in and gently pokes at it, hissing in mild pain. Time for more painkillers, he decides, bending down to snatch them from under the sink. When he stands back up, he glances at his reflection and then struggles to open the bottle. 

Then looks back up. His reflection is smiling at him. Max is not smiling. 

“What the fuck,” he says, stumbling backwards. His reflection snaps out of it and turns back into him, and Max rubs his eyes, then glances around. There are no shadows or shapes, and after a moment he convinces himself it was just his mind playing tricks on him. He’s pretty sure he’s got some sort of PTSD forming, so it wouldn’t be surprising.

“It’s not PTSD.” A voice rings out in his head, so crisp and clear Max could’ve sworn he said it himself. 

“What the fuck.” Max clutches the bottle of pills in his hand so hard it cracks. “We killed you.” 

“You knocked me out of a physical form, yeah.” The thing in his head scoffs, leaving Max staring at his reflection and hoping to god it doesn’t start moving. “But I wasn’t always in that. I’m formed from thoughts and nightmares. David rejected me, but now I have you.”

“No,” Max is panicking a little. “No, no, that’s fucking impossible. You don’t exist. This is a nightmare.” His reflection shifts, holding up the bottle and dropping it, then smiling. 

“You wish,” it says, and Max shuts his eyes. He can’t see it, so it isn’t real. He shakes his head, feeling around the counter for his discarded clothing to pick up and take back to the guest room. “Maaax.”

“Stop it,” he says, shaking his head again and clutching his jeans and sweatshirt to his chest, making his way to the door. He opens his eyes to exit, making his way down the dark hallway and into the room. “I don’t believe in you.”

“But you do,” it says, and he shuts the door behind him. “You said it yourself to David. No one else will believe you two, but you will always know what happened.” Max squeezes his eyes shut.

“Shut up. How the fuck are you in my head?” He spits out, trying to block off what he can. The thing chuckles, but it’s less like a laugh and more like nails on a chalkboard.

“You can’t tell me to shut up and then ask me a question, that’s contradictory,” it says, poking fun at Max but he’s dead set on having none of it.

“Answer it,” he demands, and hears the creature sigh. 

“Well, fine then, I will. David knocked me out of his headspace with his childlike power and I decided to poke around yours. Think of me like a parasite. Worms. I just wiggled on over while you were taking a nap to check out the furniture. And I liked it, so I stayed.” It doesn’t make any sense to Max, and he opens his eyes again, realizing he’d just been standing inside the door for the past minute or so without moving. He takes a few steps forward, mumbling to himself mostly. 

“That’s crazy. I’m crazy. This is the concussion, I bet,” he says, but he’s only trying to convince himself. The thing pipes up again:

“No concussion here!” Max shuts his eyes, taking a deep breath. 

“Shut up-” 

“If you’d just listen to me, maybe hear what I have to say-” Max shakes his head, throwing his clothes on the floor and then going over to the futon bed. He sits, then lies back. 

“I’m never going to listen to you,” he hisses, reaching up to undo the clips on his sling. 

“-don’t you want to keep him safe?” It asks abruptly. Max blinks, hand stilling on the clip. He continues after a moment, gently pulling it off and freeing his arm. 

“...what?” He asks, and he hears a quiet little laugh that’s strangely childlike. 

“David. Don’t you want to keep him safe? That’s all I wanted, too, you know.” The thing sighs, and Max sits up once more to throw the sling down on the floor next to his clothes. He brings his knees up to his chest and rolls his eyes, frowning hard.

“....I think we have different definitions of safe,” he says, glancing to the side and then around to look for any out-of-place shadows. He sees nothing. The room is lit up and safe, from what he can tell.

“C’mon, Max. You want him safe, so do I. We can help each other.” Max stays curled up but at that, unfurls a little bit with a sharp laugh. 

“By what? Murdering people?” He asks, voice incredulous. “You killed someone. You’ve probably killed more.” 

“Oh, definitely. But nothing so violent, not this time.” Max is having a hard time thinking of the monster as a monster, now. He knows David gave it a name and now it keeps popping up in his head- Daniel, Daniel, Daniel. He lifts a hand up and runs it through his hair, tugging on the tangles. 

“I hate that you have to say not this time,” he grumbles, and hears Daniel laugh once more. 

“You don’t hate it as much as you say,” it teases, and Max bats his hand around his head like maybe he can swat Daniel out of the air like an annoying fly. He doesn’t like that he can’t see him, not at all. 

“You don’t know me, shut the fuck up,” he snaps, but it just makes Daniel chuckle more. 

“I know you a lot better than you think-” he begins, but Max interrupts.

“Shut up-” he says, and probably louder than he should have. There’s a sharp knock at the door, and then it opens. Max finds himself staring at Neil’s mom, Ms. Friedmann to anyone else. She’s a sharp-looking woman with glasses and sensible sweaters and shoes, and teaches at the local kindergarten. She looks in on him with a little bit of concern, brows furrowed together and a frown on her face. 

“Max? Who are you talking to?” She asks, and Max blinks at her, before lowering his hand. He searches for an excuse. 

“...uh, myself, Kathy,” he says, and he watches her glance around the room. Well, it’s sort of true, so. 

“Oh! Well, I was just wondering if you finished your food yet.” She smiles at him, and Max shakes his head, glancing over at the uneaten plate of something. 

“Uh. No, sorry,” he says, and she tsks her tongue. 

“Well, just remember to bring it downstairs in the morning, dear. I’m off to bed. Goodnight,” she wiggles her fingers at him to say goodbye, then shuts the door.

“Sure thing, Kaths. Night,” Max says, and in his ear, Daniel cackles. “...shut up.”

“I’m just amused. You think they’re really going to make her the kid’s foster mom?” Daniel sounds intrigued, if not mildly bored. Max is quiet, watching the door, and once he hears her bedroom door shut only then responds. 

“She’s been a better mom to me than my own deadbeat bastard parent,” he says, standing up and going over to the food. He picks at it, but leaves it where it is. He’s not hungry, his stomach churning with anxiety instead.   
“Riiight. But you know how foster care works, right?” It leers at him with it’s tone, and Max feels like he shouldn’t be talking to it anymore. “Kids get bounced around from place to place, abused, neglected, uncared for. No one’s going to listen to a happy kid like David. You and I know him. You and I care about him. No one else does.” His voice is dripping with negativity and upset, and Max can’t help but feel his stomach jolt.

“Of course they do. That’s their job,” he argues, and he hears Daniel laugh. It almost sounds sad.

“That they’re getting paid for. They’re only in it for the government checks, Max. Get your head on straight.” Daniel sounds sad again, and Max’s voice drops into a whisper. 

“You’re wrong,” he says, but he almost can’t convince himself. He’s seen movies and shit about the foster system and he’s avoided it his whole life. Why should he let David go there?

“Am I? You know what it’s like to be neglected. David won’t stand a chance.” Max hides his face in his hand and tries to push away the image of David, unsmiling, broken and sad. He can’t get it out of his head once it’s there. He tugs his head up and glares into the emptiness of the room, trying 

“Well what am I supposed to do about it!” He snaps, and Daniel is silent for a moment. Max can’t bear it, but then he speaks.

“....let me help,” he says, and Max slams his hand down onto the futon.

“No.”

“Fine, then we both lose.” Daniel doesn’t seem so sad about it, but the image of sad David flashes in his head again. Max grits his teeth and his hand curls into a fist.

“Wait,” he says, and hears Daniel do this weird hum in his head. “If you help me, then, uh. We do this on my terms.” 

“You terms?” Daniel sounds amused, but like he’s considering it.

“My terms,” Max repeats, and thinks about it. “David doesn’t know you’re here. He just thinks it’s me. Once David and I are somewhere safe, you go away.” 

“What am I getting out of this?” Daniel sounds annoyed and almost irritated, sneering into Max’s ear. 

“You get to see David again,” Max points out, and he hears Daniel sigh once more. But he goes silent. Long enough that Max gets worried, wondering if he’s still here. He’s about to call out for him when he answers out of the blue. 

“Hm. Alright, then, okay,” Daniel says and Max blinks in surprise. He glances around, sort of surprised. He hadn’t expected that to work. 

“But-” He starts, and Daniel snaps in again. He sounds annoyed once again.

“What now?” He asks, voice like ice. 

“....promise me there won’t be any murder or like, bodily harm. We do this peacefully.” Max clarifies. He can practically feel Daniel consider it. 

“No murder or bodily harm! Deal.” The voice sounds positively giddy.

“And we’re just in this to get David somewhere safe.” Max affirms, and he hears Daniel once more.

“We’re just in this to get David somewhere safe. Mmmmhm.”

“....okay, then,” Max sighs. “What do we need to do?” 

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that's all, folks
> 
> probably


End file.
